Many factors can influence community safety and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Among the positive influences are: being connected to Country, land, family and spirit; having strong and positive social networks; and having strong leadership in both family and community. See Understanding Indigenous welfare and wellbeing for more information about these and other positive influences on community functioning.
This page focuses on community experiences of safety and violence, contact with child protection services, and contact with criminal justice systems.
Indigenous Australians experience violence (particularly family and domestic violence) at higher rates than non-Indigenous Australians. They are also over-represented in Australia’s child protection, youth and adult justice systems. Factors contributing to this include: past experience of violence and abuse (including in childhood); long-term social disadvantage; and the ongoing impact of past dispossession and forced removal policies that have caused psychological trauma and contributed to the breakdown of traditional parenting, culture and kinship practices (SCRGSP 2016). See glossary for definitions of terms used on this page.
Safe communities, where people feel protected from harm within their home, workplace and community, are important for physical and mental wellbeing. Indigenous Australians are significantly more likely to experience high rates of hospitalisation and death as a result of violence than the wider community. See Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework (HPF) report measure 2.10: Community safety.
Feeling safe
In 2014–15, among Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over who reported they walked alone in their local area after dark, 68% said they felt safe or very safe, and 20% felt unsafe or very unsafe. For those who reported feelings of safety while at home after dark, 87% felt safe or very safe, and 8% felt unsafe or very unsafe (AIHW 2017) (Figure 1).