Understanding the Importance and 'Potential' of the Youth Offenders Act 1997 (NSW) in Addressing the Over-Representation of Aboriginal Juveniles in the Criminal Justice System

Description

This article evaluates the problem of Indigenous youth overrepresentation in prison, as a consequence of the lack of court alternate diversionary options available within the NSW criminal justice system for Aboriginal juveniles. The source of this outcome is explored through a critique of the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW), including identifying restricted access to diversionary options like cautions and warnings due to the ?gatekeeper? role the NSW police occupy in relation to how the legislation is interpreted and applied.

Copyright Information

This document has been sourced from the Indigenous Law Bulletin database published on Austlii (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/). AustLII advises that it is not the copyright owner of the source documents published on AustLII and is not able to give permission for reproduction of those source documents (refer copyright policy disclaimer dated October 2010). Queries about copyright should be referred to the publisher - the Indigenous Law Centre and the University of New South Wales.