In the international field, the United States has led the way in studies of the disadvantaged legal position of blacks; so much so that a decade ago in 1979, Pope could give his article the title ‘Race and Crime Revisited’. Studies such as those of Axelrad (1952) and Goldman (1963) first highlighted the differential selection of black and white youths for formal Court processing, and numerous researchers since then have provided ample documentation of the over-representation of blacks (and in particular, black males) at every stage of the adult and juvenile criminal justice processes. Nor is there any evidence from recent studies that the situation is improving, despite ‘the revolutionary changes in race relations, brought about by the civil rights movement over two decades ago’ (Chilton and Galvin, 1985: 3). These trends closely parallel those now being observed in Great Britain, where the post-war immigration of Africans and West Indians, coupled with the more recent influx of Pakistanis, Asians and groups from other Commonwealth countries, has now led British researchers to take greater interest in race issues generally, and specifically in the relationship between race and crime.

Yet, despite the wealth of information on the disadvantaged position of blacks before the law which has been available from overseas countries during the past three to four decades, concern in Australia over the plight of the indigenous population has been slow to gather momentum.