The analysis focused on differences between the two groups with respect to the types of charges, court outcomes, and sentences. The courts handled 38,292 cases in 1995. Of the 30,833 cases for which racial information was available, 11.2 percent involved persons identified by police as Aboriginal, although only 0.97 percent of South Australia's adult population are Aboriginal people. A higher proportion of Aboriginals than non-Aboriginals were involved in cases involving offenses against the person. In contrast, a lower proportion of Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal cases involved drug law offenses, driving offenses, and property offenses. The proportions convicted of the major charge were similar for both groups, but the groups differed within some offense categories. Aboriginal defendants were proportionately more likely to be imprisoned than were non-Aboriginal defendants for most offense categories. The research did not try to determine the causes of the differences. However, the factors contributing to Aboriginal overrepresentation in the criminal justice system are highly complex and probably result from both different offending patterns as well as from differential handling by the system itself. Figures and tables