This article examines crime prevention practices in the Torres Strait Region (TSR), where relatively low crime rates challenge the association of discrete Indigenous communities with crime ‘problems’ and also test other criminological assumptions around crime. Drawing on 27 interviews with justice professionals and social workers in the TSR, we account for the resilience of a ‘shame culture’ in the region, which provides for a high level of social integration and sustains crime prevention practices, such as cultural mediation. Thus, we argue that while economic indicators such as wealth and employment show high levels of disadvantage in the TSR, indicators of strong social capital provide an explanation for low crime rates. We conclude that social capital is translated into local crime prevention practices that are unique to the TSR and reinforce the importance of cultural continuity and autonomy.

本文研究了托雷斯海峡地区 (TSR) 的犯罪预防实践，在那里相对较低的犯罪率挑战了离散土著社区与犯罪“问题”之间的联系，并测试了围绕犯罪的其他犯罪学假设。通过对 TSR 司法专业人员和社会工作者的 27 次访谈，我们解释了该地区“羞耻文化”的复原力，它提供了高度的社会融合并维持了犯罪预防实践，例如文化调解。因此，我们认为，虽然财富和就业等经济指标在 TSR 中显示出高度劣势，但强大的社会资本指标为低犯罪率提供了解释。