Check out this article:
A South Australian man with borderline intellectual capacity who robbed an elderly couple in the town of Port Pirie had his jail sentence reduced yesterday on the grounds of being an Aborigine.
The South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal reduced Darren Clarke’s non-parole period from 23 months to 17 months and cut his jail sentence by eight months to two years and three months because of his race. The judges found that while being an Aborigine on its own could not be used as a mitigating circumstance, it could be relevant in sentencing.
“It is to be expected that in many cases the Aboriginality of an offender will be a relevant and important factor in the sentencing process,” said Justices Ted Mullighan, Margaret Nyland and Timothy Anderson.
“Many Aboriginal people are marginalised by society and lack opportunities that are available to others. For many, realisation of legitimate expectations is unlikely. In many cases there is an inability to fit in with the non-Aboriginal community, which contributes to isolation and dissatisfaction.” . . .
Seems to me that a legal system that doesn’t treat members of a group — whether a racial group, cultural group, or some other group — as fully responsible for their actions isn’t likely to be able to treat members of that group as equal to others in other respects. You can’t have it both ways: You can’t be equal when you do right, but coddled when you do wrong.
Also, in America, a disproportionate share of crime is intra-racial: Blacks disproportionately victimize blacks, whites disproportionately victimize whites (partly because that’s whom they live around). I suspect that’s also true in Australia — which means that giving special race-based benefits to Aboriginal criminals means imposing extra burdens on their mostly Aboriginal future victims.
Thanks to Zev Sero for the pointer.
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