Take Home Exam Final

Question# 1

Analyse why the initiatives in Victoria to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people has not been successful? Consider theory/s, human rights issues and strategic planning in your answer and include criminal justice examples.

Introduction

The issue of the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system is complicated and has been prolonged. Even though the numbers and paces of Aboriginal youngsters and grown-ups associated with the criminal justice system in Victoria are lower than most other Australian wards and public figures, they are high when contrasted with the non-Aboriginal populace and are expanding.

Between 2011-12 and 2016-17, the pace of Aboriginal grown-ups under equity watch expanded by 52.6 percent (from 294.5 to 449.5 per 10,000) contrasted to a 34 percent expansion among non-Aboriginal grown-ups (from 28.6 to 38.4 per 10,000). In 2016-17, Aboriginal grown-ups were 11.7 occasions more probable than non-Aboriginal grown-ups to be under equity watch in Victoria (Aboriginal over-representation in the justice system, 2020).

There are three laws that the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission have to obey. These included the Equal Opportunity Act 2020, the racial and religious Tolerance Act 2001, and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. All of these laws were basically about providing equal representation to everyone. However, the overrepresentation of the Aboriginals violated this law along with basic human rights. 

Failure in addressing the Issue

Five key strategic priorities were established by the Department of Justice and Regulations to address this issue along with others.

They built partnerships and worked to decrease the contact of the Aboriginal community with the criminal justice system in Victoria. It represented the mid-point of a long-term (generational) strategy, with a target to close the gap in the rate of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people under youth and adult supervision by 2031 (Government, 2015).

The reason for the failure in this plan to address the issue being discussed was that the plan was quite generic. They should have specified the goals objectives to solve this particular issue instead of just designing these for the organization. An effective strategic plan must have all these on business as well as departmental levels. The mandate, restrictions, constraints should have also been mentioned as they are a part of the strategic planning process. But this was lacking as well. Proper internal and external environment’s evaluation was also necessary. 

Also, the opinions of the people in the system were not incorporated. They hold a great stake in the strategies and therefore, would have been consulted before designing the plan. Therefore, this resulted in these initiatives not being successful. However, Native and government pioneers from across Victoria are participating in the 56th Aboriginal Justice Forum (AJF) to talk about approaches to lessen the overrepresentation of Aboriginal Victorians over the equity framework (Andrews, 2020).

Example and Theoretical Viewpoint

The degree of the over-representation differed by state and domain. For instance, in the NT, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people groups established 30% of everybody, and 84% of the jail populace. In Victoria, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people groups established 1% of everyone and 8% of the jail populace (Over-representation, 2018).

Now the issue could be resolved by involving the people involved in the system, i.e. the employees. Even according to the Hawthorne studies, the involvement of the employees is necessary for the creation of an effective strategic plan. Hence, the issue could have been addressed better.