Young indigenous males, custody and the rites of passage / Emma Ogilvie and Allan Van Zyl.

Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 2001.

21975

Indigenous peoples -- Australia.

Aboriginal Australians.

Prisons -- Australia.

Criminology.

This paper examines the concept of incarceration as an alternative "rite of passage" for young Indigenous males. The study was based on a series of interviews with young Indigenous offenders in the Northern Territory. The findings suggest that the concept of incarceration as a rite of passage needs to be substantially reconfigured. While imprisonment can certainly serve as a testing ground for young Indigenous males, it does not replace traditional rites of passage in remote communities, and needs to be recognised as a phase in criminal trajectories characterised by a lack of access to basic social resources. - Publisher's website.

0642242291

6 p.