OPINION: A youth ‘crime wave’ in Alice Springs – partly blamed on last year’s lifting of ‘Intervention’ laws – has led to more officers on the streets and more youngsters locked up; but Professor Thalia Anthony and Researcher Vanessa Napaltjari Davis argue that this ‘knee-jerk’ law and order response ignores longer term Royal Commission calls for a more humane response to young people and for greater support for First Nations families and organisations.

Opinion: Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Thalia Anthony says Australia is appalled by racist police violence in the United States, but does not confront discrimination within its own criminal justice system against First Nations people.