Delivering Justice in Indigenous Sentencing Courts: What this Means for Judicial Officers, Elders, Community Representatives, and Indigenous Court Workers

Abstract

Indigenous sentencing courts are now an established form of innovative justice practice in most Australian jurisdictions. Whether such processes, which involve the participation of local community elders or representatives in sentencing an offender, provide a “better” form of justice is still up for debate. Recidivism analyses have yet to find that these courts are more likely to reduce reoffending than their mainstream counterparts. Some scholars argue that this is not the sole purpose of the courts and that other measures of “success” should be utilised when evaluating their performance. This article uses interviews with judicial officers, elders, community representatives, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous court workers to explore what the courts are seeking to achieve and how that translates into a different form of doing justice.