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Judges soft on Aboriginal criminals

Judges sentence Aboriginals to 43% shorter jail terms than the rest of the population

If you are an Aboriginal felon then you can expect a jail term 42.8% shorter than a non- Aboriginal convicted for the same offence. The median aggregate sentence length for all offences for Aboriginals is 2 years, versus 3 years and 6 months for non-Aboriginals.

These startling figures, as shown in the table below, validate the public perception that judges are soft on Aboriginal criminals.

Scales of Injustice
Offence Jail term

Non-Aboriginal

Jail term

Aboriginal

Homicide 14 years 10 years
Assault 2 years 6 months 1 year 6 months
Sex offences 6 years 7 years
Other against person 3 years 3 months 3 years 3 months
Robbery 6 years 5 years 8 months
Break and enter 2 years 1 year 11 months
Fraud 1 year 8 months 2 years 6 months
Theft 1 year 1 year
Property damage 3 years 9 months
Justice procedures 9 months 9 months
Good order offences 4 months 14 months
Drug offences 4 years 6 months 2 years 3 months
Driving offences 6 months 7 months
Other traffic offences 6 months 8 months
Other offences 1 year 4 months 9 months
All Offences 3 years 6 months 2 years

 Source: Australian Institute of Criminology, November 1999. Data derived from  Prisoners in Australia (ABS 1998)

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