INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CANADA REPORT 2022

Running head: THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN
CANADA
THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CANADA
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THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CANADA
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The indigenous people or the aboriginal people are the inhabitants of Canada since time
immemorial. According to the census, report (Statistics of Canada) of 2016 indigenous people
consists of over 1.6 million, which was 4.9 percent of the total population in Canada. The
indigenous people were responsible to create complex economic, social, cultural and political
systems before the arrival of Europeans to North America. The Aboriginal population mainly
consists of a group that can be Inuit or Metis, North American Indian. The people who were
identified under the Treaty Indians or people from an Indian community are also coming under
this section. The northern regions of Canada were primarily inhabited by the Inuit. Praire
provinces and Ontario are residences of the Metis. It has been seen that research over the years
has more directed towards the indigenous people as the indigenous people have gone through
different social, historic and economic conditions. The uniqueness of the indigenous people to be
a part of the society are likely to come under the criminal justice system and the legislators need
to consider these people separately to follow the law. Different policies have been introduced
under criminal justice and implemented also. These policies are fulfilling the needs of the people
or not is very difficult to assess because different reports and surveys are lacking in the evidence
to show the indigenous victimization and affronting. The criminal justice system through
corrections surveys, police reports and data observed the involvement of aboriginal people. The
reports have shown that the indigenous people are playing as a victim for heinous crimes more
than the non-aboriginal people (Boyce, 2016). The aboriginal people are also considered more
for playing the role of an offender especially in the police-reported cases. The cases include
people in the correctional system and murder cases. Canada has seen that the area surrounded by
the indigenous people are with high rates of crimes as compared to the other parts of Canada.

THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CANADA
2
This paper will focus on the victims of aboriginal groups in the society and social aspects
behind these groups and the challenges in the criminal justice system in Canada.
There are different social factors when it comes to the existence of these people.
Aboriginal people are having low education as compared to the non-aboriginal people as per a
report in 2001 the aboriginal people aged 15 years or older failed to complete the high school
and the percentage is higher than the non-aboriginal people. The level of percentage is much
lower for the university study for these groups. The low education standards also made the
indigenous people grow as a low-income group and the employment rate is also high among
these groups. One person from every five people belongs to this group is considered to
unemployed and the percentage is high from the non-aboriginal group. The aboriginal group
consists of younger people than non-aboriginal people which considers as one of the vital threats
for victimization and offending (Friend, 2016).
It has been seen that the average young from the aboriginal group aged about 24 years
whereas the non-aboriginal the average young age is 37. Uniform Crime Reporting Survey in the
year 2004 showed that the age group between 15 to 24 years is responsible for property crimes
and it was 43% and for brutal crimes, it was 32%. The children from the aboriginal group are
mostly the members of a single parent which is another drawback for the upbringing in the
society (Hargreaves, 2017). The people from this group who are the resident of off reserves in
Canada are living in crowded conditions and these social factors make these people as the
vulnerable group in the society which can be easily exploited by the system.
The criminal justice system of Canada made a large group of people from the aboriginal
group as the victim of crime. The General Social Survey of 2004 has shown that aboriginal
people faced the crime more than the other people in Canada and the crime rate against these