Patterns of indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice systems
of settler societies such as Australia and Canada exhibit a strong spatial
component, with rural and remote regions showing higher levels both of seri
ous crime and of punitive response. In Australia, these patterns have been
the subject of recent cultural geographies of Aboriginal offending which re
ly on limited functionalist models of the effects of modernisation. An alte
rnative model is proposed, which interprets these variations in the light o
f socio-spatial theories of postmodernisation. A probit analysis of rates o
f Aboriginal offending across Australian jurisdictions reveals a close rela
tionship between levels of seriousness of crime and levels of cultural stab
ility and socioeconomic stress.