The Youth Guarantee Education Initiative and Its Impact on Criminality: Māori Youth Perceptions
| Author | Sarah Wright Monod,Daniel Poa |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225416665821 |
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225416665821
Youth Justice
2017, Vol. 17(1) 41 –56
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1473225416665821
journals.sagepub.com/home/yjj
The Youth Guarantee Education
Initiative and Its Impact on
Criminality: Māori Youth
Perceptions
Daniel Poa and Sarah Wright Monod
Abstract
Māori youth are over-represented within the New Zealand criminal justice system. Māori youth comprise
60 per cent of the total youth apprehensions and represent only 20 per cent of New Zealand’s youth
population. This qualitative study focuses on the narratives of six young Māori men and women about
their criminal histories, and how their engagement in a re-education initiative – the Youth Guarantee
policy – impacted upon their criminal activity. Although the study provided evidence that is congruent with
assumptions about the education–crime relationship, the participants’ narratives implied that the impact
the Youth Guarantee had on Māori youth offending could be attributed to a number of proxy impacts
that they received as a result of their re-engagement in the open-door practices of one provider’s Youth
Guarantee–funded programme.
Keywords
crime, education, Māori, narratives, youth
Introduction
Young Māori are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system (CJS) in
New Zealand, as are young indigenous populations in other settler states such as Australia
(White, 2014), Canada (Greenberg et al., 2016) and the United States (Hartney, 2008).
While Māori only represent 20 per cent of New Zealand’s youth population, in 2012,
53 per cent of total youth apprehensions were of Māori (Ministry of Justice, 2012) and, in
2014, this percentage had risen to 60 per cent (Statistics New Zealand, 2016). Māori youth
are also more likely to be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced than are any other ethnic
group (Workman, 2011). This, in turn, compounds the criminal justice statistics for Māori
adults. Māori men currently make up 50 per cent of the adult male prisoner population and
Corresponding author:
Sarah Wright Monod, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Email: sarah.wright@vuw.ac.nz
665821YJJ0010.1177/1473225416665821Youth JusticePoa and Wright Monod
research-article2016
Article
42 Youth Justice 17(1)
Māori women make up over 60 per cent of the adult female prisoner population. The
United Nations (UN) Sub-Committee against Torture (2015), in its response to New
Zealand’s sixth periodical report, expressed grave concern at these figures and called for
an increase in efforts by the incumbent and future Governments to address not only the
present situation but also its underlying causes.
Explanations as to those causes are roughly divided along two opposing lines. Some
scholars (e.g. Marie, 2010) argue that there are differential patterns of offending by Māori
(the differential involvement thesis). Others contend that practices of direct and indirect
discrimination within the CJS are to blame (the discrimination thesis) (Jackson, 1987,
1988; Tauri, 2005; see also Workman, 2011). The New Zealand government appears to be
open to the first explanation but wholly resistant to the second. Indeed, it has been observed
that the current policy position both denies the possibility that there may be ethnic bias
operating within the police and/or the judiciary or that practices that lead to inequitable
justice outcomes for Māori are systemic in nature (Robson Hanan Trust, 2015).
Criminologists argue that both sets of explanations are in need of more scholarly atten-
tion and that neither is a full answer by itself. Bull (2009), for example, proposes that exist-
ing data sets be re-analysed and new knowledge be generated. Specifically, she calls for
in-depth research with Māori offenders, preferably at the point at which they first come into
contact with the CJS, so that effective solutions can be developed. This article responds to
this call. It draws on data from narrative interviews conducted with disengaged and socially
disadvantaged Māori youth who have been in trouble with the police, a population that is
not often heard from within criminological discourse or policy documentation. The aim of
the study was to understand if, and how, an initiative designed to re-engage young people
back into education may have affected an individual’s criminal activity. The findings sug-
gest that processes that offer emotional and practical support might affect justice outcomes
for young Māori and by extension other young alienated groups. Criminology is conscious
that processes matter in reconnecting ‘outsiders’. Procedural justice theory, for example,
holds that the ways by which the police treat citizens communicates to those citizens their
value and standing in a said community. Treatment that is seen to be just and fair promotes
identification with a law-abiding group and facilitates a view of police as legitimate hold-
ers of power (Bradford et al., 2014; Murphy, 2009, 2013; Tyler, 2006). Reintegrative sham-
ing also describes a process by which an offender’s close relations and victim express
disapproval (shaming) and then forgiveness about acts committed. This process is argued
to be instrumental in creating moral obligations to the community on behalf of an offender
(Braithwaite, 1989; Harris et al., 2004). The findings discussed in this article will be seen
to support these understandings.
Crime, Risk and Responsibility
Responses to crimes by youth vary across western industrialised nations. Each jurisdic-
tion espouses an approach which is a unique blend of global trends and local factors and
a compilation of ideas and practices. Despite these differences, most nations espouse to an
overarching framework that focuses on risk and responsibility (MacDonald, 2015; White
and Perrone, 2015).
To continue reading
Request your trial