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  • Settler Justice and Aboriginal Homicide in Late Colonial Australia

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    Author(s)
    Finnane, Mark
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Finnane, Mark J.
    Year published
    2011
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    This article examines the hidden history of criminal justice in late colonial Australia by focussing on Aboriginal inter-se offending. Most Aboriginal defendants appearing in late colonial criminal courts were prosecuted for violent crimes against other Aboriginal people. The article explores how common such cases were and the degree to which the acknowledgment of cultural difference affected justice process and outcomes. The frequent invocation of ‘custom’ commonly led juries to recommend the mercy of the Crown to those Aboriginal defendants found guilty of committing a homicide. I argue that ‘custom’ was increasingly ...
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    This article examines the hidden history of criminal justice in late colonial Australia by focussing on Aboriginal inter-se offending. Most Aboriginal defendants appearing in late colonial criminal courts were prosecuted for violent crimes against other Aboriginal people. The article explores how common such cases were and the degree to which the acknowledgment of cultural difference affected justice process and outcomes. The frequent invocation of ‘custom’ commonly led juries to recommend the mercy of the Crown to those Aboriginal defendants found guilty of committing a homicide. I argue that ‘custom’ was increasingly used by settler judicial processes as a shorthand way of explaining what was otherwise seen as unexplainable. In the twentieth century ‘custom’ would receive greater attention through the development of jurisprudence and policy around the idea of customary law.
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    Journal Title
    Australian Historical Studies
    Volume
    42
    Issue
    2
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2011.560610
    Copyright Statement
    © 2011 Routledge. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
    Subject
    Historical studies
    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history
    Australian history
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/41848
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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    Tagline

    • Gold Coast
    • Logan
    • Brisbane - Queensland, Australia
    First Peoples of Australia
    • Aboriginal
    • Torres Strait Islander