Safety in Indigenous communities: identifying gaps and opportunities in Australian crime prevention policy

This research is part of a larger 3-year project that investigates how a socially and culturally inclusive policy approach could improve community safety in a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory. In this article, we attempt to address the questions–how is community safety defined and conceptualized in Australian policy, and how does this compare to how it is viewed in the case study community? Our goal is to challenge and build on Australian policy concepts, specifically relating to community safety and crime prevention, in remote areas where there is a large proportion of Indigenous people. Findings reveal that: (1) the definition and conceptualization of community safety differs between the case study community and current Australian Government strategies and (2) current government strategies to reducing crime and improving safety do not adequately address the range of problems experienced in this case study. To address this gap, Australian policies and services need to embrace a strength-based approach to addressing the complexity of behavioural and neighbourhood problems holistically.