Further_explorations_of_the_interactions.pdf - 217...

Further explorations of the role of crime in
Indigenous employment status
Boyd Hunter, The Australian National University
Abstract
Undertaking econometric modelling using samples from small populations such as
Indigenous Australians, is difficult because of the data constraints facing both the
researcher and the data collection agency. This paper uses the ABS’s Remote Access
Data Laboratory to analyse an expanded unit record file that is only available in this
form. The following analysis of the 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Survey illustrates how expanded unit record files can be used to replicate and extend
existing research. In addition to confirming earlier research, the crucial importance
of the early interactions with the criminal justice for perpetrating Indigenous
employment disadvantage is also highlighted.
1. Introduction
The over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prison continues to be a serious
problem, more than a decade after the recommendations of the Royal Commission
into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCADC) were handed down (Baker 2001; Williams
2001).
1
For example, Baker (2001) finds that the over-representation stems initially
from the higher rate of appearance at court by Indigenous Australians, but is amplified
at the point of sentencing, with Indigenous offenders sentenced to imprisonment at
almost twice the rate of non-Indigenous persons. The violent nature of the offences
for which some Indigenous people are convicted and the greater likelihood of
Indigenous persons having prior convictions were also found to contribute to their
higher rate of imprisonment.
Borland and Hunter’s (2000) analysis of the 1994 National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS) shows that interactions with the criminal justice
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank participants at the 2006 Australasian Meeting of the
Econometric Society who provided insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. Thanks
are also due to an anonymous referee whose feedback was invaluable.
Boyd is a Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National
University, Canberra, 0200. Email: [email protected]
1
The recommendations emphasised the need to reduce the disproportionate levels of Aboriginal
persons in custody, rather than the need to directly prevent their deaths. This emphasis arose out of
the Royal Commission’s conclusion that the 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody which occurred during
the 1980s were not a result of Aboriginal persons being any more likely than others to die in
custody, but were a result of their gross over-representation in prison.
© The Centre for Labour Market Research, 2006
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system are an important factor underlying Indigenous disadvantage in employment.