3.1 Native women

Native men and women are over-represented among Canadians who are arrested; and Native women are even more over-represented than Native men. Like women in general, Native people, and Native women in particular, live in deprived conditions, with a lack of social and economic opportunities compared with non-Native men. Native women not only suffer from gender-based discrimination, but also from racial discrimination and laws that, until 1986, deprived them of their Indian status, forced them off the reserves where they lived, and denied them certain rights.

A study by the Ontario Native Women's Association revealed some disturbing statistics:

• 37% of Native women incarcerated in Ontario were 20 years of age or younger;
• 52% of these women were first arrested between the ages of 14 and 17;
• 18% were younger than 14 when they were first arrested;
• 40% had been arrested 15 times or more;
• 55% had been incarcerated one to three times previously;
• 21% had 17 prior incarcerations.

Once again, it is crucial to consider the overall system of structural inequality in Canada, as well as the sociocultural milieu from which Native women come into conflict with the law. The last century his seen a breakdown of traditional Native roles and values, and a loss of power and personal status among Native people. The residential school system, which removed Native children from their communities, resulted in a denigration of parents' values and options. The welfare system, which served to "pick up the pieces" of Native culture following increasing industrialization and urbanization of Canadian society, assisted in the breakdown of traditional Native families.

Carol LaPrairie (in Adelberg, 1987) notes that Native women may come into contact with the law in a variety of ways: they may retaliate in kind against abusive partners; they may escape from an abusive home situation and migrate to an urban area were discrimination by the larger society, combined with a usually low level of skills and education, may relegate them to the ranks of the unemployed or unemployable." This ghettoization, like the ghettoization of non-Native women, increases the probability of alcohol or drug abuse, prostitution and property crimes. In addition, says LaPrairie, "even without engaging in any of these activities, being in an urban area increases their exposure to the police, some of whom may be biased in the way they exercise their discretionary judgment when deciding whether or not to arrest a Native person.''

Both Native and non-Native women face economic, sociocultural and legal factors which, to a large extent, determine whether they will come into conflict with the law. Both groups are subject to poverty, sexual and physical violence, a lack of educational and occupational opportunity, and gender- and/or racially-based discrimination.