Aboriginal crime at the cultural interface in Central Australia

Very high levels of Australian Aboriginal offending, incarceration and recidivism have been analysed almost exclusively in terms of the classic association between crime rates and low socioeconomic status, poor education, unemployment and alcohol and substance abuse. This article draws on participatory research with Central Australian Aboriginal prisoners and former prisoners and their families to provide understandings of the difficulties both societies experience at the justice interface. It is argued that conflicting cultural precepts underpinning Australian Aboriginal and Western ideas of justice are significant in explaining the high rates of offending in Central Australia