Over-Involvement of Indigenous People With the Criminal Justice System - Questions About Problem 'Solving' (From Justice Programs for Aboriginal and Other Indigenous Communities, P 121-140, 1985, Kathleen M Hazelhurst, ed. See NCJ-100652)

• NCJ Number: 100659
• Author(s): P Havemann
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper assesses a decade (1972-83) of Canadian research literature which purports to explain the disproportionate involvement of natives with the criminal justice system and which proposes criminal justice reforms to combat it.

Abstract

The dominant explanatory model assumes that the Canadian criminal code is just for natives and that the criminal justice system is essentially fair in the enforcement of the code vis-a-vis natives. The disproportionate involvement of natives in the criminal justice system is generally attributed to the deviance of their poverty culture and widespread alcoholism. Perceived contributory factors are biased decisionmaking by some criminal justice personnel and natives' ignorance of their legal rights. Proposed solutions are the cross-cultural education of nonnative criminal justice decisionmakers and the increased recruitment of natives into criminal justice jobs. This dominant explanatory and reform model fails to diagnose the criminogenic effects of the colonial imposition of an alien system of law and criminal justice on an existing native culture, as well as native maladjustment within the modern technological economy. What is needed is more self-management of native communities that will permit them to develop legal and social control systems reflective of their cultures. 64-item bibliography.