Decolonization of Criminology and Justice (E-Journal)
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New Zealand’s Coalition Government Gang Policy and the Death of Evidence
Full text linkA particular focus of the NZ government in relation to crime control is its stated aim to ‘smash the gangs’, signalled through a range of policies, including banning gang patches and providing police with enhanced dispersal powers. So far, one significant feature of the government's platform is its inability to provide evidence that demonstrates the efficacy of the criminal justice policies and interventions it plans to implement, such as boot camps and banning patches. Government members have also shown themselves immune to evidence of the efficacy of existing policies and interventions it has sought to remove, or that problematises their claims about the likely success of those they want to introduce. It is argued that the government is employing an ideology-based policy process that is driven by political expediency (winning votes) rather than employing an evidence-based approach, which would demonstrate a genuine concern for reducing crime and ‘making us safer’
Cunneen, C. (2023). Defund the Police: An International Insurrection. Bristol University Press.
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A Method for Evaluating the Adequacy of Police and Coroner Investigations into Suspicious Unnatural Deaths
Full text linkCanada has witnessed thousands of Indigenous testimonies about the suspicious deaths and disappearances of their loved ones and the deficient or non-existent investigations thereafter. Despite growing attention to Indigenous deaths in inquiries and government apologies, there remains little information at ground level for families on how to challenge investigative practices and few cases that have done so successfully. Our research began when we were invited to evaluate the investigations into the suspicious deaths of three Indigenous youth in Canada. We did so by comparing police and coroner behaviour in those cases to standard practices required by provincial, federal, and international guidelines for police and coroners. Results revealed numerous instances of inadequacy where investigators either did not perform required procedure(s) or did not complete tasks to internationally recognized standards; police and the coroner performed half or fewer of “required” procedures in each of the three cases. An important product of our evaluation is a checklist of standard investigative procedures that other families and communities can use to assess other investigations into questionable deaths that occur in their communities and press for accountability
Page, C. & Woodland, E. (2023). Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety. North Atlantic Books.
No full textThe Garrison and the Jamaican State: A Model for Co-optation
Full text linkThe informal system that is present in communities called garrisons in Jamaica often operate outside of the law. Under the leadership of dons, who were initially appointed to carry out the dictates of politicians, the operations of the garrison accounts for approximately 40% of Jamaica’s homicide and is perceived as a socially disorganized space. Research done on these communities suggests that dismantling these communities will ameliorate the high incidence of crime. The main question of this study is, are these communities socially disorganized spaces? The major argument is, the ineptitude of the Jamaican state has resulted in the institution of various mechanisms by non-state actors within these communities to address their justice concerns, and there is an implicit reliance on their services by the Jamaican state. The problem of crime in Jamaica is complex and requires a multi-dimensional approach to addressing the issue. In this paper, I use a Foucauldian lens to highlight the utility of this instituted informal system and suggest that any strategies geared towards addressing crime and violence that occur in these communities should explore coalescing these informal structures into Jamaica’s formal framework.
 
Searching for Justice: Indigenous Self-Determination over the Landfill Search as a Matter of Justice for MMIWG2S
Full text link“Search the Landfill” is an Indigenous-led movement for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) which originated through Indigenous resistance to police racism in Winnipeg, Canada. The movement calls upon all levels of government to support and execute the search of the Prairie Green Landfill, just north of the City of Winnipeg, to recover the bodies of at least two of four First Nations women who were murdered in early 2022 at the hands of a white male serial killer. Through an analysis of the news articles, press releases, and reports, this paper explores the way in which Indigenous leaders resisted and rewrote the discourses that surrounded the search. By at once condemning the Winnipeg Police Service’s refusal to search the landfill and rejecting police authority and control over the decision-making process, Indigenous women who became the leaders of this movement crafted the space to articulate for themselves how and why the search must be done as a matter of Indigenous rights. This paper explores how Indigenous leadership offers glimpses of what a decolonizing approach to justice may look like in cases of MMIWG2S and which, in turn, invites further opportunities to problematize, subvert, and move beyond the Western legal norms and traditions
A Critique of the New Zealand Government’s Gang Legislation Amendment Bill’s Banning Gang Patches in Public
Full text linkThis paper provides a summary of the social and economic circumstances that have led to the proliferation of gangs in New Zealand. It also examines New Zealand public policies to manage gang behaviours and the outcomes of these policies, which in the main have contributed to the formation of gangs and their violent behaviours. The paper uses this background information to critique the coalition government’s proposed Gang Legislation Amendment Bill that prohibits the display of gang insignia in public places, creating a new criminal offence, currently before Parliament. We contend that the proposed legislation will do nothing to reduce gang membership as it does not address the causes of gang membership
Wrestling with Biculturalism in Social Work Education
Full text linkWhen approached to write a piece on Donna Awatere’s (1984) book Māori Sovereignty from a social work perspective we seized the opportunity to reconsider her work. Revisiting the text after a 30-year-plus hiatus sparked a series of reflective conversations about how we wrestle with teaching biculturalism and our efficacy in preparing students for bicultural practice realities. This article draws upon our co-constructed narratives about what it means to be a social work educator in a bicultural practice landscape. Social work students graduate into an exceedingly complex practice environment fraught with tension about how to resolve inequities across the micro-to-macro continuum. The focus of this article is how Donna Awatere’s work is reflected in the tensions and responsibilities experienced when socialising students into the bicultural mission of social work practice in Aotearoa (New Zealand).