NCJ Number
139220
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 3-4 Dated: special issue (July-October 1992) Pages: 503-512
Date Published
1992
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Community participation in social control in Canada's Northwest Territories is addressed, and the impact of modernization on traditional social control mechanisms is examined.
Abstract
Post-World War II development in the northern part of Canada precipitated a dramatic change in an aboriginal society traditionally characterized by its primary group relationships, dependency, and homogeneity. The costs of social dislocation, due to modernization and accelerated social change, had negative effects on maintaining traditional social control mechanisms within the family and community. Initially, limited community involvement in sociolegal control was due to the breakdown in traditional control mechanisms and the community's increasing reliance on formal agencies. This reliance eroded the basis for community response to threatening behavior. One obstacle to the community's willingness to accept responsibility for the control process resulted, at least in part, in its diminishing tolerance of crime and increased social distance from offenders. The subsequent experience of aborigines with Canada's criminal justice system stimulated a demand that criminal justice interventions be more culturally relevant. This initiative primarily entailed indigenization of the criminal justice system and facilitated community participation in social control. Community participation in social control is now evident on many fronts, including the control of alcohol and spousal assault. The Northwest Territories' Region and Tribal Council Ordinance gives communities the option to undertake responsibility for social services and provide alternate direction to service delivery. Aboriginal people recognize the need to accept ownership of the problems of crime and deviance and the view that solutions must come from within. 12 references and 1 note