RT Article
T1 Intersection of Indigenous Peoples and Police: Questions about Contact and Confidence1
JF Canadian journal of criminology and criminal justice
VO 61
IS 4
SP 101
OP 119
A1 Alberton, Amy M.
A1 Gorey, Kevin M.
A2 Angell, G. Brent
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1688812180
AB Despite much anecdotal, journalistic, and statistical evidence of their oppression by colonial and neocolonial police practices, little is known about Indigenous peoples' attitudes towards the police in Canada. The theory that involuntary police-citizen contacts increase citizens' mistrust, fear, and dissatisfaction and, ultimately, decreases confidence in the police was advanced. Hypotheses arising from this historical-theoretical context were tested with the 2014 panel of Canada's General Social Survey, including 951 Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, or Inuit) and 21,576 non-Indigenous white participants. Indigenous identity and involuntary contacts were both significantly associated with a lack of confidence in police, p <.001. As hypothesized, the odds associated with involuntary contacts (odds ratio [OR] = 2.66) were stronger than those associated with being Indigenous (OR = 1.81). While the hypothesized ethnicity by contact interaction was not observed, Indigenous participants (5%) were two and a half times as likely as non-Indigenous white participants (2%) to have had relatively frequent (two or more) involuntary contacts with the police during the past year. Therefore, at the population level Indigenous people are at much greater risk of coming into involuntary contact with the police and of consequently lacking confidence in police. Policy implications and future research needs are discussed. (English)
K1 First Nations
K1 General Social Survey
K1 Indigenous Peoples
K1 Police attitudes
K1 Police questioning
K1 Social surveys
K1 Confidence in police
K1 Involuntary contact
K1 Canada
DO 10.3138/cjccj.2018-0064