Why Indigenous criminology?

One of the main motivations for this book was to provide the basis for a discussion of an alternative approach to mainstream criminological theorising, explanations and commentary on Indigenous peoples’ experiences of settler colonial criminal justice. The importance of an alternative, Indigenous-centred perspective on this relationship can be justified through the significant over-representation of Indigenous peoples in police contacts, stop and search, arrest, court appearances, convictions, imprisonment, and victimisation data. Apart from over-representation, the added value of an Indigenous criminology is predicated on a number of interrelated issues, two of which we will expand on here. These are:

• • the need to include the process of colonisation as a key component to any theoretical and analytical framework for understanding and redefining the so-called ‘Indigenous problem’;

• • the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination.

Throughout this book, and particularly in Chapters Two and Three, we identified the shortcomings in the approach of many mainstream criminologists dealing with Indigenous peoples, crime control and the formation of criminological knowledge about them. We demonstrated the historical development of criminology as a key discipline of colonial control over Indigenous peoples. Whether knowingly or not, many contemporary criminologists continue to perform the role of neo-colonial intellectuals through their use of disempowering methodologies that silence Indigenous experience and knowledge of social harm.

The focus of criminological analysis on the individual antecedents of Indigenous crime and victimisation removes by default the impact of colonial and neo-colonial policies and interventions from theorising and analysis of Indigenous over-representation. In comparison, we argue that any attempt to understand the Indigenous experience that ignores the impact of coloniality, is inadequate for understanding the drivers of Indigenous over-representation, and developing effective responses. A thorough policy process must include analysis of issues such as the forced removal of children, missionary/residential schools, stolen wages and trust funds, discriminatory legislation, excessive, and often violent policing strategies, the biased application of discretionary powers by police, limitations in sentencing, and mass incarceration. Lastly, as will be discussed later in this chapter, these neo-colonial approaches work against the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination both within criminal justice and in other spheres of social, economic and political life.