Overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in Canada’s Criminal Justice System: Perspectives of Indigenous young people

Excerpt from Introduction, Page 111-113:

"Indigenous peoples 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 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 graduation” (p. 6)

...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 colonialism and its continuing effects in respect to social disorder in Indigenous communities. There are profound social and economic problems in Indigenous communities, fundamental breakdowns in social order that never existed pre-colonization (Jackson, 2015; Rudin, 2005).

...Surprisingly, there are very few, if any, Canadian studies that have engaged and consulted Indigenous young people on their perceptions regarding why they believe Indigenous young people are over represented in the criminal justice system. The central purpose of the following study is to provide a platform for Indigenous young peoples’ opinions regarding these issues." (111-113).