Crime, Deviance, the Law, and Institutional Racism: FN pov

• Indigenous deviance


  The concept of Indigenous deviance is defined by the Western colonizer. Indigenous deviance can be considered an array of social constructions designed to justify colonial dominance and rupture the lives of Indigenous peoples. The underdevelopment of Indigenous communities helped promote Western perceptions of Indigenous peoples as deviant.
• Indigenous perspectives on crime, law, and deviance

  • Can be understood through interpretations from Elders. Colonial interpretations have constructed Indigenous peoples as deviant, backwards, and in need of colonization. Indigenous peoples have their own cultural explanations of crime, law, and deviance.
• Indigenous experiences with the criminal justice system

  Pre-colonization, Indigenous people had their own ways of carrying out justice. Indigenous communities carried out justice by including the victim, offender, and community in a justice process that focused on healing and repairing harm. Today, this is manifested in healing circles. Indigenous ways of justice were suppressed by colonizers because they emphasized community-based healing rather than punishment.
• Dominance of Western laws in defining crime and the need for an Indigenous approach


  • Certain acts considered a crime in the western world are not considered as such in the Indigenous world, such as land defense. Indigenous people have been systematically alienated from their traditional laws and justice systems. Lack of traditional restorative justice programmes that work with the provincial courts; lack of First Nation police departments on reserves.
• Canadian Legislation


  • Indian Act 1876 dismantled traditional governance and imposed strict rules on Indigenous peoples' lives. Constitution Act 1982 (section 35) recognized Aboriginal and treaty rights, including constitutionally protected rights to self-government. Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Children, Youth and Families 2019 enshrined into law for Indigenous peoples jurisdiction over child welfare and family services. Act Respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2021 further advanced Indigenous self-government.
• Indigenous Legal Orders


  "Law is the set of stories that help us regulate ourselves and our relations with others." "[Law] enables human dignity and agency, and provides ways for people to challenge internal oppressions, power dynamics." "It is not just what once was important to Indigenous peoples in their laws, it is what is important to us today." "Persuasion is always a present-oriented activity, which means our traditions are living traditions."
• The Indigenous experience of the criminal justice system cannot be explained without understanding Western justice and its punitive ideology.
• The criminal justice system is based on punishment, and incarceration is relied upon as a response to crime.
• Indigenous people are more likely to be incarcerated for the same crimes as non-Indigenous people.
• Methodology of the research study

  This study emerged out of recognition that the Swampy Cree Elders hold traditional knowledge garnered from experience in life. Six Elders in the Opaskwayak community were interviewed using methods that respected Swampy Cree protocols (e.g. tobacco, cloth, food, beverage offerings.)
• Research findings: What do the Swampy Cree Elders say about crime, deviance, and the law?

  • Research guided by the Four Directions philosophy: the mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical components of our being. A system that emphasizes the process of healing characterized the Elders' description of Swampy Cree justice. Mental realm: feelings and emotions are implicated in justice. Elders emphasized open-mindedness, the ability to have non-judgmental community involvement, accountability, reparation, reconciliation, and restoration. Physical realm: the need for offenders to take responsibility for their actions.
• Indigenous laws hold lessons for thinking about crime, law, and deviance that can improve justice for Indigenous communities and broader society.
• Cree Elders described a restorative justice approach to dealing with deviance.
• Justice is dealing between the offender, victim, and community.
• Western justice has been used to colonize and criminalize Indigenous people.
• Indigenous justice is crucial to Cree Elders, individuals, and communities.