Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System Essay

There is much literature about African American and Hispanic offenders and the punishment of males in the criminal justice system; however, there is not much literature on either Native Americans or women offenders in the criminal justice system. Luana Ross attempts to break this trend with her research in Inventing the Savage: The Social Construct of Native American Criminality. In her book, Ross first gives a comprehensive history and perspective on the perception of Native Americans by what she describes as “Euro-Americans.” In the second part of her book, Ross gives us a glimpse on the conditions and

According to Monchalin (2016), the affects of colonization and treatment of Indigenous community’s correlates to the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, stating Aboriginal people are susceptible to risk factors, which can result in crime. Monchalin (2016), defines risk factors as influences which increase the probability of being exposed to victimization or crime. Risk factors present in Aboriginal communities include marginalization, systemic racism, lack of cultural identities, and dysfunctional, disorganized families (Monchalin, 2016). Residential schools are notoriously known for their role in producing immensely negative affects on Aboriginal people for decades, which has been detrimental within communities and has lead to the vast overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. The Office of the Correctional Investigator (2016), states in 2016, the number of Aboriginal people represented in Canadian federal institutions had reached 25 percent, whereas the aboriginal population itself only reflects 4.3 percent of Canada’s total population. To what extent has residential schools influenced the current issues concerning overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canadian Prisons? Residential schools have had an instrumental role in hindering Aboriginal male’s ability to succeed in society, thus leading to the mass incarceration of First

This essay endeavors to explain what risk factors are and discuss four key risk factors that may assist in explaining the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. These include family violence, alcohol and drug abuse as well as employment and

The violent crime victimization rate for Native Americans is more than twice the rate for the nation. (p. 103)

Through statistical data, it is apparent that structural inequality exists within the criminal system for Indigenous women. Bond and Jeffries (2010) research, looked at the difference between imprisonment rates for Indigenous women and non-Indigenous women over a 9-year period for comparable offences (1996-2005). It was found that Indigenous women were found, on average,

The Criminal Justice System has made many changes since it first started in the 17th Century. The Criminal Justice System first began in the United States during the colonial times, when the colonist had to follow the rules of the British. During the Colonial times, the Criminal Justices System was not as fair as our current system is today, which meant a lot of people did not have liberties and were ultimately treated unfairly. Times have definitely changed for the Criminal Justice System and for the United States. We now have several documents giving citizens’ rights to be protected from the Criminal Justice System, a few of those right are in the constitution and also the 27 amendments. In the United States there are also a few other things that a person can do other than go to jail or prison. One alternative to prison or jail is house arrest where the offender serves out their sentence at their home. Another one is probation, Probation, in criminal law, is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by a court instead of serving time in prison. In the United States, we have several documents and alternatives for being placed in jail or prison, yet people still find a way to get themselves incarcerated. Since there are so many prisoners in these correctional facilities, they are beginning to face several problems such as mental health issues, staff morale, negative media attention, inmate behavior, and overcrowding. I believe overcrowding is the most

Alcoholism is a big problem of reservations. Native Americans are four times more likely to die of alcoholism and 17 times more likely to die in an accident involving alcohol. In addition to this, they are twice as likely to be involved in an arrest concerning alcohol.

According to the article, Native Americans are the unseen victims of a broken US justice system written by Jake Flanagin, he states, “Native Americans are incarcerated at a rate 38% higher than the national average, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics”. Most people don’t think about this nor should they. When people think of mass incarcerations, most think of Hispanics, African Americans, and other racial groups. Native American men are four times more likely to be incarcerated than a white men. A chief of a federal district court judge of North Dakota, Ralph Erickson said, “No matter how long I have been sentencing in Indian Country, I find it gut-wrenching when I am asked by a family member of a person I have sentenced why Indians are sentenced to longer sentences than white people who commit the same crime. Native Americans are typically prosecuted under federal law for serious offenses committed on reservations, state punishments for the same crimes tend to be

“Delinquency is defined as the total prevalence of delinquent acts during the past12 months. The delinquency scale was adopted from the delinquency scale currently utilized in the Monitoring the Future Study of United States students that has been ongoing since1975” (Benschop, Harrison, Korf, & Erickson, 2006, p. 67). Race and ethnicity play a significant role in juvenile delinquency. As we grow up we are and become a product of our environment. Race and ethnical background play huge roles in who we are, how we are raised and what kind of life we

Have you or someone else ever realized that not many Native Americans make it off the reservation? There’s maybe a 1 out of 100 chance that a Native will make it big. The biggest reason a Native doesn’t make it off is because the usage of drug addiction and alcohol. 9 times out of 10 a Native American turns down a college scholarship or only goes to college for one year at the max because they are so addicted to drugs and alcohol they can’t concentrate on the task at hand.

Native Americans have struggled to rise above and escape their impoverished reservations because they use alcohol to cope. The alcohol causes the Natives to lower their ambitions and become self destructive. Many might claim that alcohol abuse is not that common on reservations and is not the main source of scarcity of Native success. Not all Native Americans engage in alcoholism. There are “many tribes and individual Native Americans [who] practice abstinence and drinking in moderation, aligning the substance abuse levels of their tribe with the rest of the country” (addictiontreatment.org). It is evident that there is no absolute when it comes to the amount of Native Americans who abuse alcohol. Many are conscious of the disastrous effects

Prior to European colonization, North America was home to up to ten million indigenous people with distinct cultures and hundreds of languages. Within 500 years the population was halved through disease and genocide. Today, Native American’s make up 5.2 million or 2% of the US population (US Census 2013). This population has suffered the trauma of genocide, dislocation, poverty and oppression mostly through policies and confrontations with the federal government. Today, reservations are populated by the poorest 1% of US citizens (Koppisch) and have become a hotbed of violent gang culture. To understand the roots of this social condition we can examine how The Indian Removal Act of 1830 started the systematic relocation of tribes away from coveted land rich in resources began the process of forced assimilation of Native American people, but what other factors have contributed to this extreme level of poverty? How has inadequate education, a political system of custodianship where the US government acts as a guardian to tribes, soaring unemployment, and disproportionate substance abuse rates created a climate where native youth have turned to organized crime? What, if anything, is being done to stop gang violence and tackle the systemic issues underlying this social problem?

When I initially started planning this paper I was ecstatic to learn what the literature had proven effective for the Native American community and possibly my own people, the Navajo Nation. Since I was a little girl I pledged that I was going to help my people, in any way that I could when I grew up. My main drive behind my profession of choice isn’t for the money obviously, I grew up on the Navajo Reservation, and I have witnessed first hand the detrimental effects of alcohol abuse. My father was an alcoholic he died

David Cole wrote, "our criminal justice system affirmatively depends on inequality" (5). Cole has substantial grounds for making this statement. Race and class have long been issues in the criminal justice system, but does the system "affirmatively depend on inequality?" Does the criminal justice system depend on the disparities of the people that it serves?

The criminal justice system treats all forms of serious crimes in an unforgiving manner. If the offenders commit a crime while under the influence of drugs, they are likely to be put in prison for a longer period of time rather than someone who committed the same kind of crime but was not under the influence of drugs (Taylor, 2008). With that said there are many causes of drug related crimes. Usually when there is a drug related crime it tends to be more serious in terms of damage done than non related ones. It is important to further explore crimes that are drug related in order to see the root causes.