Indigenous Criminology by Cunneen Chris Tauri Juan

Author:Cunneen, Chris, Tauri, Juan [Cunneen, Chris, Tauri, Juan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Social Science, Criminology, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781447321767
Google: CpDgswEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 25102785
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2015-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The intersectional reality of Indigenous women and crime control

In recent times a number of critical Indigenous and postcolonial theorists have challenged shortcomings with governmental and conservative social scientific theorising on Indigenous issues, by constructing explanatory frameworks that place the Indigenous lived experience at the centre of social inquiry and that recognise the complex, intersectional nature of Indigenous people’s experience of coloniality (Baldry and Cunneen, 2014). A useful concept that has arisen from the critical analysis of the settler colonial state, particularly for critical exploration of Indigenous women’s interactions with crime control policy, is Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. Analysis of the intersection between gender and race (ethnicity) arguably provides a nuanced framework to analyse: the significant and steadily increasing imprisonment of Indigenous women; high levels of family and sexual violence experienced by Indigenous women; and the silencing of Indigenous women’s experiences in the construction of crime control policy (discussed earlier).

Structural intersectionality relates to ‘[t]he way in which the location of women of colour at the intersection of race and gender makes [their] actual experience of domestic violence, rape, and remedial reform [and arguably, policy] qualitatively different’ (Crenshaw, 1991, p 1245) than that of white women, men and Indigenous men. The results of structural intersectionality, involving the impact of criminologically inspired crime control, leads to high levels of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and low educational attainment, which hinder ‘their ability to create alternatives to abusive relationships’ (Crenshaw, 1991, p 1245). According to Kuokannen (2014, p 3):

Crenshaw’s approach enables a detailed examination of the ways in which structural factors such as dispossession, displacement and poverty of Indigenous peoples are gendered and have different effects on men and women, and how these processes have contributed and reinforce intragroup hierarchies and patriarchal oppression in Indigenous communities.

An intersectional approach to an analysis of Indigenous women’s imprisonment enables an understanding of the grounded link between the epistemic, structural violence and oppression of coloniality (Kitossa, 2012; Woolford, 2013) and the contemporary, individual experiences of offending and victimisation of Indigenous women. For example, the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council’s (2002, p 5) qualitative research on Aboriginal women’s experiences of prison found that:

Aboriginal women in prison had long and serious histories of abuse. 70% of the women surveyed said that they had been sexually assaulted as children and most had also suffered other types of childhood abuse. 78% of the women stated that they had been victims of violence as adults and 44% said they had been sexually assaulted as adults.

The complexity of the drivers of Indigenous interaction with crime control policy, and the need for an intersectional theoretical and analytical framework that includes a critical analysis of the impact of coloniality, is highlighted by Watson’s (2009, p 5) revelation of the representation of Indigenous Australian culture and gender politics within the legal system:

In the process of translating Aboriginal law the Australian courts have contributed to the harm that is done to Aboriginal women while at the same time constructing Aboriginal men as inherently violent and inferior to white men (Razack 1994 pp 899-900).

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