ERIC Number: EJ835818
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0161-6463
EISSN: N/A
A Research Note on American Indian Criminal Justice
Braunstein, Rich; Anderson, Bill
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, v32 n4 p125-128 2008
One confronts many difficulties when conducting policy-relevant criminal justice research that focuses on American Indian interests. Foremost among these difficulties is the great variation in relevant contexts that apply to this area of research. From the urban context of large American cities, where American Indians constitute a slim minority that is prone to victimization by members of other racial and ethnic groups, to the solidly rural context within northern Plains reservation communities where American Indians constitute strong majorities and violent crime is likely to be intraracial, there are challenges when it comes to understanding and addressing the dynamics of criminal behavior and its impact on American Indians. These two extremes, and the contexts that lie between, are difficult to compare because of the tremendous variation in interests, behaviors, and legal structures associated with them. What is needed in this area of research and policy-making discourse is a form of humility among those active in the exchange of information in order to describe the limits of what they know carefully so that the true contributions of research and public advocacy are not distorted in the policy realm. Individuals need to get beyond established approaches and biases if they are to advance the call for more just results for the American Indian community and, by extension, the community at large. (Contains 2 notes.)
Descriptors: Crime, American Indians, Criminals, Interests, Justice, Criminology, Context Effect, Public Policy, Social Science Research, Racial Factors, Research Design
American Indian Studies Center at UCLA. 3220 Campbell Hall, Box 951548, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548. Tel: 310-825-7315; Fax: 310-206-7060; e-mail: sales@aisc.ucla.edu; Web site: http://www.books.aisc.ucla.edu/aicrj.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A