Australia is obsessed with a 'youth crime crisis' in Alice Springs, but we risk ignoring the root problems

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Alice Springs News

Youth Crime,Curfew,Social Media

Crime is just one symptom of the intractable tragedies unfolding in Central Australia. But as the media obsesses over this 'crisis', the deeper issues are ignored, and it's First Nations communities that suffer.

Alice Springs is entering its third week under a curfew designed to keep children off the street to stem a string of break-ins that had begun to unnerve the desert town.The third week of this curfew signifies another tiny plaster being affixed over an injury so large it will take decades to heal.It underlines the seriousness of the situation to see some Aboriginal organisations support the curfew as a temporary circuit-breaker, although some do so reluctantly.

Usually the headlines shouting "crisis" refer to the tip of the iceberg — not the greater danger which lies beneath, the other slow-burn crises that are harder to see. For example, it's had scant mention in much of the media coverage, but the very real crisis of Australia's first people living destitute on their own lands is something a curfew cannot confront.Crime — and the influx of children into jails and the criminal justice system — might be the visible trauma in town, but there are many others that First Nations leaders argue go drastically underfunded.

In an election year, when few newsrooms in Australia employ any Indigenous reporters, we're probably unlikely to hear too much about these other crises.

Youth Crime Curfew Social Media Tiktok

 

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