Maori and criminal offending: a critical appraisal.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Marie, Dannette
• Date: 01 August 2010

Since the advent of the Maori renaissance in New Zealand and the shift toward the sociopolitical ideology of biculturalism, the disproportionate representation of Maori in prisons has increased. Criminal justice sector policy asserts that this overrepresentation is best understood as the outcome of Maori experiencing impairments to cultural identity resulting from colonisation. Central to this claim is the notion that ethnicity is a reliable construct by which distinctions can be made between offenders regarding what factors precipitate their offending, as well as best practices for their rehabilitation. Despite the absence of empirical support, this claim has been transformed from a conjectural claim to a veridical fact resulting in what is termed here 'the wishing well approach'. An alternative perspective is recommended to improve current efforts to address the issue of Maori being overrepresented in New Zealand's criminal justice sector.

Keywords: Maori, criminal offending, ethnicity, identity

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The issue of Maori being overrepresented in New Zealand's criminal justice sector continues to raise considerable debate. A range of explanatory theories to account for the asymmetry in criminal offending rates between Maori and non-Maori has been proposed. Ausubel (1960) for example, suggested that Maori adolescents were prevented from assimilating into mainstream culture by their elders. The outcome of this 'generation gap', as Ausubel described it, was increasing rates of juvenile delinquency and crime involving Maori youth. O'Malley (1973) in contrast, contended that the move by Maori from a rural to urban environment heightened the risk of criminal offending by Maori. Others have directed attention toward deeper structural causes such as: the organised settlement of New Zealand disrupting Maori tribal society (Jackson, 1987, 1988); monocultural public and social policies (Maxwell & Morris, 1999; Morris et al., 2003; Pratt, 1992; Te Puni Kokiri, 2000; Williams, 2001); justice system bias (Department of Corrections, 2007) and the role poverty might play in contributing to ethnic differences in offending rates (Fergusson et al., 1975). In their assessment of theories of indigenous violence, Snowball and Weatherbum (2008) outline a number of theoretical frameworks that have been used to explain the discrepant rates of offending by ethnic groups in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. It is the endorsement of one populist explanation for offending rates of Maori by the Department of Corrections in New Zealand that this article is principally concerned.

In this article it is contended that the Department of Corrections has adopted a specific theory about the causes of criminal offending by Maori. A major assumption of this theory is that the contemporary overrepresentation of Maori in offending, incarceration, and recidivism rates is best understood as the outcome of Maori experiencing impairments to cultural identity resulting from colonisation. Central to this theory, therefore, is also the assumption that ethnicity is a reliable construct by which distinctions can be made between offenders regarding what factors precipitated their offending, as well as best practices for their rehabilitation. Considering a thwarted cultural identity is believed to have given rise to the higher proportion of offenders who are Maori, rehabilitation efforts largely pivot on the idea that restoring cultural identity will lead to a subsequent reduction of the number of Maori in prison. (1) In the absence of empirical evidence, these assumptions form the theoretical foundation of current intervention programs targeting offenders who are Maori. Important to note is that although these assumptions have been in circulation for some time, their adoption and implementation has not led to any demonstrable reduction in Maori rates of offending. It is for this reason that I coin the term 'the wishing well approach' to describe the Department of Correction's ongoing commitment to a theory about Maori offending, which is not based on empirical evidence and has not produced the desired effect of reducing current rates of offending by Maori.

In order to illuminate the wishing well approach in more detail, attention is directed toward a number of constructs such as 'race', ethnicity, culture and identity, which remain influential in current conceptions of Maori as individuals and as a group. The turn toward postmodern social policy is also described as a feature that has aided and abetted the development and endorsement of the wishing well approach. The themes of 'culture loss' and 'recovery' elucidate how the wishing well approach has gained considerable traction in the criminal justice sector in New Zealand. In addition, due to supporters of the wishing well approach largely decrying conventional research methodology, the question is raised as to whether the approach can even be evaluated relative to standard research aims such as replication, refutation or confirmation (cf. France & Homel, 2006).

It could be suggested that the term 'wishing well' infers an element of cynicism about current efforts targeting the overrepresentation of Maori in prison. However, to the contrary, the term so coined attempts to capture the assumption that those who endorse the wishing well approach, do so because they genuinely have faith that it is the 'right' approach to be taken to what can only be deemed a serious problem. Finally, it is suggested that the wishing well approach may very well be observable in other nations that are also actively engaging with contemporary indigenous rights and representation issues (cf. Snowball & Weatherburn, 2008). Before describing the assumptions that characterise the wishing well approach in more detail, a brief overview of offending rates by Maori is provided.

MAORI BEHAVING BADLY

When compared to other groups classified by ethnicity, the rates of offending by Maori are chronically high (Department of Corrections, 2001a; Doone, 2000; Fergusson, 2003; Nasedu, 2007; Singh & White, 2000). An exploratory report examining this issue states that there is now a substantial history of attempts to understand the problem and, further, that the figures reporting on overrepresentation do not adequately convey the actual extent of the problem (Department of Corrections, 2007). Although rehearsed perennially, a strategic policy brief recently prepared on behalf of the Ministry of Justice (2009a) entitled 'Maori Over-Representation in the Criminal Justice System' provides a stark update on the scale of the problem.

Maori currently represent around 13% of the general New Zealand population, but make up 51% of the prison population. In 2006, Maori accounted for 43% of all police apprehensions. While total apprehensions during the timeframe 1997-2006 increased by 4%, the rate for Maori was 10%. Violent offending increased markedly overall during this period, but most of all for Maori with an increase of 40%. Maori are more likely to be apprehended and convicted for offending involving violence, dishonesty and administrative offences when compared to other New Zealanders. Specific to violent offending, Maori are also more likely to be apprehended for homicide, kidnapping and abduction, as well as grievous and serious assaults. Regarding population projections, because Maori are a relatively youthful ethnic group and the onset of criminal offending typically begins between the ages of 12 to 16 years of age (Ministry of Justice, 2009b), any improvement in lowering the rates of offending by Maori in the immediate future, looks unlikely. As Maori are also disproportionately represented in the 15-29 years offending-prone age group, the imminent scale of offending involving Maori is likely to grow exponentially in line with the change in demographic profile of this ethnic group. In view of these figures, the outlook regarding the problem of Maori being overrepresented in the criminal justice system appears decidedly bleak. A critical point, however, that requires explicit emphasis is that the vast majority of Maori do not offend. In fact, according to the Department of Corrections' (2008) most recent 'Maori Strategic Plan', as of June 2008, 95.4% of Maori over the age of 17 were not serving a sentence that was being managed by the department. This statistic therefore reveals a vital point, namely that, with respect to offending by Maori, we are actually only talking about a minority within a minority who are doing the offending. If a goal of our scientific endeavours is to improve the accuracy of our statements, especially when they relate to risk, then this statistical detail suggests that terms such as 'Maori offending' may require revising.

THE NATURE OF MAORI OFFENDING: FROM RACE TO ETHNICITY

There is now a substantial history of attempts to understand why Maori are overrepresented as offenders in New Zealand (Bull, 2004; Fifield & Donnell, 1980; Fergusson et al., 1993, 2003; Jackson, 1988; Marie et al., 2008, 2009; Maynard et al., 1999; Newbold, 2007; O'Malley, 1973; Pratt, 1999; Spier, 2001; Williams, 2001). In order to elicit an improved understanding of the association between Maori ethnicity and offending, these attempts have emerged from a number of different disciplines and canvassed a range of causal theories about criminal offending. What characterises this history, however, is the assumption that the problem is not only best construed and analysed as a population-level phenomenon, but also that initiatives developed to address the problem should be targeted toward the population of Maori. Similar to other nations, New Zealand traditionally employed the concept of 'race' to demarcate and enumerate the population (Spoonley, 1988). Blood quantum was the main criterion to determine race and other proxy criteria such as lifestyle preference and ancestry were also commonly used (Pool, 1991). However...