Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Law and Order" [1985] AboriginalLawB 29; (1985) 1(14) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• Law And Order

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Law and Order

The following extract is from a longer report 'A Review of Recent Research Literature Relating to the Operation of the Criminal Justice System and Canada's Indigenous People' by four Canadian researchers at the Prairie Justice Research Consortium, School of Human' Justice, University of Regina.

This report, prepared for the federal Ministry of the Solicitor General, provides a critical assessment of available Canadian research literature (generally 1972-1983) describing the impact of selected components of the criminal justice system upon Indigenous people in Canada. Explanations for the over-involvement of Indigenous people at key junctures in the criminal process and the proposed solutions to these problems are scrutinised.

Contraryto the assumptions explicit in much of the literature, these reviewers assume that the over-representation of Indigenous peoples throughout the criminal justice system is the inevitable consequence of colonisation and under-development. Policy in Canada must,the review argues, address itself to the macro-level of socio-economic planning rather than attempt to reduce over-involvement by adjustments simply at the micro-level of service delivery systems and programs.

From this perspective, the research on the dimensions of law enforcement and the problem of discriminatory policy are evaluated in terms of solutions commonly practised in Canada: cross-cultural education of police, legal education of Indigenous peoples, and indigenisation of rural policing. Research on the criminal court process is also examined to critique the array of factors which are offered to explain indigenous over-involvement in thissphere: the inadequacy of legal representation, the mystification of court processes and language, and judicial discretion. Literature on legal services to Indigenous people, the indigenisation of legal training and adjudication processes and the development of tribal courts and courtworker services are all examined. The review also looks at the research on over-representation in prison and explanations for this phenomenon, including the findings on judicial bias in sentencing, the importance of fine defaulting, and attempts to indigenise correctional programs. Finally, the report identifies gaps i n existing research and consequent policy implications for discriminatory laws, for police discretion, for legal services, and for decision-makers who influence the nature of correctional dispositions for Indigenous offenders.