NCJ Number
139211
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 3-4 Dated: special issue (July-October 1992) Pages: 317-338
Date Published
1992
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Data from interviews with community members, police occurrence reports, and court records were examined to evaluate the handling of crime and crime control in three Nishnawbe-Aski Nation communities in northern Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
People in the three communities differed, sometimes dramatically, in their estimates of how frequently specific forms of disorder occurred. Similarly, they varied in their views of whether these problems should be dealt with by the community itself or by the police and courts. Crime rates, as reported by the Ontario Provincial Police, varied across communities. Official rates of charging community residents varied across both communities and time. In 1988, for example, the number of charges per 100 residents was over 5 times as high in one community as it was in another. In 1990, however, the relative charging rate reversed, with adult charge rates decreasing by almost 80 percent in one community and increasing by 187 percent in another. Many of those interviewed said they did not feel comfortable calling the police when trouble occurred. Similarly, a substantial number did not believe the court performed as the community would like it to. Overall, most people did not believe that crime and order problems got settled in a satisfactory manner by the Euro-Canadian system. How they should be dealt with, however, was not clear. 13 references, 6 notes, 14 tables, and 1 figure