Overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in Canada’s Criminal Justice System: Perspectives of Indigenous young people
| Author | Carla Cesaroni,Kaitlin Fredericks,Chris Grol |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865818778746 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Overrepresentation
of Indigenous youth in
Canada’s Criminal Justice
System: Perspectives of
Indigenous young people
Carla Cesaroni, Chris Grol and
Kaitlin Fredericks
University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada
Abstract
The central purpose of this study was to provide a platform for Indigenous young peoples’
opinions regarding the overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice
system. Specifically, the study sought (a) their thoughts on broader issues that contribute to the
overrepresentation of young people, and (b) strategies on how to reduce the overrepresentation
of young people in the future. Results mirrored themes and findings from the research literature.
However, the results are themes that are derived from the lived and observed experiences of
Indigenous young people and the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Me
´tis communities.
Keywords
Indigenous young people, over-representation, youth in custody
Date received: 20 November 2017; accepted: 2 May 2018
Introduction
Indigenous peoples
1
are overrepresented in the prison populations of most western
nations including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (Roberts & Melchers, 2003).
The problem of Indigenous overrepresentation in Canada has been well documented in
Corresponding author:
Carla Cesaroni, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada, 55 Bond Street East, Oshawa, ON
L1G 0A5, Canada.
Email: carla.cesaroni@uoit.ca
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(1) 111–128
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865818778746
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all principal correctional texts for several years, and widely acknowledged by the
Canadian public (Roberts & Melchers, 2003). The Supreme Court of Canada has
called the overrepresentation of Indigenous people “a crisis in the Canadian justice
system” (Rudin, 2005, p. 5). In its review of the overrepresentation of young people
in custody, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) (2015a, 2015b)
suggested, “The youth justice system perhaps more than the adult criminal justice
system, is failing Aboriginal families” (p. 177). According to the Council of
Provincial and Child Advocates (2010), “For Aboriginal children and youth in
Canada, there is a greater likelihood of involvement in the criminal justice system,
including detention in a youth custody facility, than there is for a high school gradu-
ation” (p. 6).
The most significant casual factors underlying overrepresentation of Indigenous peo-
ples are complex. They have been identified as the legacy of colonialism, its socioeco-
nomic impacts on Indigenous families and communities, and the attitudinal and
institutional racism of the present (Corrado, Kuehn, & Margaritescu, 2014; Rudin,
2005). As Cunneen (2006) argues in the following:
An adequate explanation involves analyzing interconnecting issues which include historical
and structural conditions, of colonization, of social and economic marginalization, and
institutional racism, while at the same time considering the impact of specific (and some-
times quite localized) practices of criminal justice related agencies. (p. 334)
Thus, it is theorized, the interaction of structural inequality, community and cultural
breakdown, and systemic discrimination (rooted in the vestiges of colonialism) result in
Indigenous overrepresentation in prisons (Grekul & LaBoucane-Benson, 2008). The
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1995) locate the root cause of Indigenous
crime and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system in Canada’s history of colo-
nialism and its continuing effects in respect to social disorder in Indigenous communi-
ties. There are profound social and economic problems in Indigenous communities,
fundamental breakdowns in social order that never existed pre-colonization (Jackson,
2015; Rudin, 2005).
The TRC (2015) was clear in drawing the connection between the legacy of colonial-
ism, specifically residential schools,
2
and the overrepresentation of incarcerated
Indigenous young people as noted in the following:
The great vulnerability and disadvantage experienced by so many Aboriginal youth
undoubtedly contribute to their over representation, a factor that is intimately tied to the
legacy of the residential schools. Many of today’s Aboriginal children and youth live with
the legacy of residential schools every day, as they struggle to deal with high rates of
addictions, fetal alcohol disorder, mental health issues, family violence, incarceration of
parents, and the intrusion of child-welfare authorities. All these factors place them at great-
er risk of involvement with crime. (p. 178)
Policies connected to colonization have created a complete disconnect between a
whole generation of young people and their families, young people who are lacking
an identity, education, and in many cases suffering from various forms of trauma
112 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(1)
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