Indigenous Australians and crime

Indigenous Australians commit crimes and are imprisoned at a disproportionately high rate in Australia. According to one source, there is "gross overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders at all stages of the criminal justice system". The 2006 census documented that there are 455,031 Indigenous people, who are either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, in Australia, accounting for 2.3 percent of the population.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that Indigenous Australians account for around 28% of Australia's prison population. The Australian government and local Indigenous groups have responded to these trends with numerous programs and measures.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed that Indigenous people accounted for 25 percent of Australia's prison population in 2009. The age-standardised imprisonment rate for Indigenous people was 1,891 people per 100,000 of adult population, while for non-Indigenous people it was 136, which meant that the imprisonment rate for Indigenous people was 14 times higher than that of non-Indigenous people. The imprisonment rate for Indigenous people had increased from 1,248 per 100,000 of adult population in 2000, while it remained stable for non-Indigenous people.

Indigenous men accounted for 92 percent of all Indigenous prisoners, while for non-Indigenous people the rate was 93 percent. Seventy-four percent of Indigenous prisoners had been imprisoned previously, while the rate for non-Indigenous prisoners was fifty percent. Chris Graham of the National Indigenous Times calculated in 2008 that the imprisonment rate of Indigenous Australians is five times higher than that of black men in South Africa at the end of apartheid.

A leading researcher in prison reform, Gerry Georgatos, revealed on a national television program that in Western Australia 1 in 13 of all Aboriginal adult males is in prison. He stated that this is the highest jailing rate in the world from "a racialised lens".

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