Reasons For the Low Standard of Living of Indigenous Australians
Although family is definitely a contributing factor, it is also known that children who have a weak attachment towards schooling, does not complete schooling or perform poorly have a higher risk in the involvement in crime. Having adequate access to education will decrease crime, the economic model explains how higher education is strongly associated with increased opportunity costs and patience which would decrease criminal activity. Furthermore, education also influences an individual’s social circle therefore, the more educated an individual person is, the more educated his/her peers are likely to be.
Indigenous Australians are disadvantaged in many ways like health, housing, education etc. This has become more than just an issue about going to school, in fact there is very limited access to schooling, limited funds, limited support and limited access to basic everyday needs. When the need to survive is the constant objective, education becomes a trivial subject when in reality having an adequate education system can benefit the individual and the future generation. Schooling has the ability to end this vicious cycle of poverty, high crime rates, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness etc. however this is close to impossible without aid, support and funding. Furthermore, the issue of employment pose another significant increase in prison rates. The lack thereof unemployment has generated positive and consistent association of crime.
Unemployment rates tends to understate the scale of the Indigenousunemployment problem due to the high levels of Indigenous Australians that have given up looking for work. The ratio between employment to population offers a better understanding of Indigenous involvement in the mainstream economy. In 2006, research on employment rates between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians were observed, in summary, the Indigenous population ratio lags far behind that of the non-indigenous population. In NSW, there was a 54. 1% gap between levels of employment, 30% more of non-indigenous Australians were employed than Indigenous Australians (70. 1 and 45. 5 respectively). A study of unemployment and incarceration exhibited that the growing levels of incarceration also effects the recycling of these ex-offenders back into the job market with reduced job opportunities and an increased difficulty in obtaining employment.
Incarceration lowers opportunities and work prospects for former inmates which will lead to social and economic disadvantages by minimizing and segregating individual barriers to meaningful employment. This becomes a prominent issue within the Indigenous community as there is a growing population within the prison system as there is such challenges with employment after imprisonment. A neighborhood with high imprisonment rates often receives stigma which poses another challenge for local residents to access job-hiring networks or to enter and participate in everyday life. Employers demonstrate more reluctant and hesitation to hire former prisoners than to hire welfare recipients. This creates job scarcity even with low skilled jobs, this is a major problem especially for a community that already lags so far behind in employment and economic disadvantage.
Lastly, Indigenous Australians in Australia still remain as an ethnic minority and still remains segregated from the wider community. A social process over many years has transformed social difference into social deviance. A major consequence of this is that although they are Australian and they live in Australia, they are still treated as outsiders. Already subject to economic disadvantage and social marginalization, a generation of young people has grown up in a social atmosphere hostile to their culture, to their community, to their religion and to their very presence. Some even argue that policy initiatives have been directed at diversion rather than dealing with the underlying causes of offending behavior. For many young people, the way to overcome marginalization and alienation is to find other ways to affirm their social presence, this can often lead to joining a gang or demonstrating acts of rebellion. From this point of view, joining a gang is significant as it provides a sense of community andempower them in a face of outside hostility, disrespect and racism. This is supported by Blacks (1983) theory of crime as a form of social control, which enforces the notion that acts of crime is due to expressions of grievance, a form of self-cope that fulfils the desire for justice by those unwilling or unable to pursue such through traditional avenues like law enforcement or the criminal justice system.
A culture that has been corrupted for centuries, trying to tackle this issue is awfully difficult as everything is hopelessly entwined. A prominent issue that occurs such as child maltreatment, drug and alcohol abuse, limited and poor school performance and unemployment are all intertwined, caused by a number of indirect effects and feedback loops. Such factors are related in a sense that child maltreatment and poor parenting influences poor school performance, substance abuse and unemployment. Incarceration and arrest limits an individual’s ability to seek employment prospects, thereby encourages and further increases their involvement in crime. The reason why the Indigenous population is so prevalent and is still growing within the prison system is due to a multitude of factors in conjunction with each other. The Victorian Aboriginal justice agreement discusses the impact of a community and an individual’s social environment.
Social environment which includes social and economic disadvantage which has remained unchanged and continue to be an existing issue, in consequence it places enormous stress in families and the communities which may result in alternate ways to cope with their circumstances like criminal activity. In other words, a byproduct of economic and social disadvantage is drug and alcohol abuse, child neglect and absence of family support, limited or poor education and unemployment.
