Power Relation

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Understanding the relationship between power relations and how we define, measure and respond to crime and harm is crucial. Power relations can take on a variety of different forms depending not only on the situation, but the perspective of each party involved. In particular, power relations involving patriarchy, government power and racism demonstrate how crime and harm can look vastly different even when following the same principles.

One theory in understanding crime both in and out of the home is patriarchy, which addresses power relations between the genders. Patriarchy is such a structure in both politics and society that nurtures masculine dominance and male privilege (Walley & Belknap, 2017). Power imbalances are displayed between …show more content…
Racial profiling has long since been an issue in society, and there is a clear link between the power of legal enforcement, and both the discrimination and overcriminalisation experienced by the Indigenous people in the community. At every level of the criminal legal system and process, there has been overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australian prisons (Porter & Cunneen, 2020). The constant persistence of racial and colonial profiling raises questions around the relationship between the police and the community. There is an apparent mishandling and response to cases where race is involved. One example was the death of Yorta Yorta woman, Ms Tanya Day. After being arrested for public drunkenness and supposed “unruly” behaviour, Ms Day was detained, suffered a head injury in a police cell, and ultimately died in hospital (Human Rights Law Centre, 2020). It was a requirement that physical checks take place every 30 minutes; however, this did not happen, and no one responded to Ms Day until 3 hours after she fell and hit her head. Investigations were conducted into “whether racism played a part in their decision making” (Human Rights Law Centre, 2020). Abolishing the offence of public drunkenness was recommended 30 years ago by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and only years after the death of Ms Day, did the Andrews Government announce the abolishment of the offence (Human Rights Law Centre, 2020). This is only one example of suspected mishandling of cases in criminalising people of colour, but it is an evident issue between the power of the police and government action, and their abuse of power dynamics in
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