Simone Bull paper.pdf - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Simone Bull paper.pdf - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Simone Bull paper.pdf - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
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Changing the broken record: New theory <strong>and</strong> data on Maori offending<br />
<strong>Simone</strong> <strong>Bull</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
Despite being experts in criminal justice, when we gauged how well we know<br />
Maori representation in the criminal justice system at the recent IPS evidence<br />
forum, our knowledge was shown to be seriously lacking. This is reflected in<br />
the sparse literature on the topic.<br />
Existing theory<br />
Few explanations for the seemingly high levels of offending by Māori have<br />
been the object of rigorous research in New Zeal<strong>and</strong> - although many have<br />
been the subject of "rigorous assertion" (Stenning, 2005).<br />
Over the past century, the volume of literature generated by Maori offending is<br />
such that you could list most of the references on one page. The drivers of<br />
crime specified in that literature range from atavism to tradition <strong>and</strong> cultural<br />
mores; urbanisation, cultural discontinuity, failed integration, acculturation<br />
stress, social disorganisation, <strong>and</strong> lifestyle instability; primary <strong>and</strong> secondary<br />
culture conflicts; colonial injustices, institutional racism, tradition corrupted,<br />
cultural denigration <strong>and</strong> powerlessness; poor education outcomes (sometimes<br />
involving glue ear) <strong>and</strong> socio-economic deprivation; whānau alienation, stress,<br />
alcohol <strong>and</strong> drug abuse; necessity, excitement, consumerism; politicisation<br />
<strong>and</strong> decolonisation; <strong>and</strong>, most recently, trapped lifestyles (complex interplay<br />
between socio-economic variables, confused or partially developed cultural<br />
identities, <strong>and</strong> individual <strong>and</strong> collective experiences).<br />
Bias <strong>and</strong> the age structure of the population have also been identified as<br />
critical issues for Maori. But, I view them not as explanations of offending so<br />
much as [partial] explanations of the extent of Maori representation in the<br />
criminal justice system (though General Strain Theory does posit bias as a<br />
motivation for crime).<br />
I don’t have the space here to review or critique this literature. At the risk of<br />
over-simplifying, I want to focus on key themes.<br />
Key theme 1: Maori 'over-representation' is the wrong paradigm<br />
The bulk of published literature on the causes of Maori offending consists of<br />
general (as opposed to offence-specific) theories that try to explain all Maori<br />
offending. Most start with the observation that Maori are over-represented in<br />
the criminal justice system, <strong>and</strong> work from there. But, how robust is this claim?<br />
On the surface, it seems valid. While making up only 15% of the general<br />
population, Maori currently comprise 40-45% of all Police apprehensions.<br />
Therefore, Māori are over-represented in the criminal justice system. On the<br />
other h<strong>and</strong>, this view of Maori over-representation ignores the roles played by<br />
known criminogenic factors. Rather than compare the proportion of Māori<br />
apprehensions to the proportion of Māori in the general population, for<br />
example, we should examine whether the proportion of Māori who are young,
male, unmarried, unemployed, uneducated, in subst<strong>and</strong>ard housing, is<br />
reflected in the apprehension statistics. Rates of recorded offending, <strong>and</strong><br />
hence imprisonment, are well known to depend on a range of social<br />
development factors (Braithwaite, 1989), rather than raw population<br />
proportions. But, we have never undertaken research to test whether Maori<br />
are still over-represented in the criminal justice system once you control for<br />
known criminogenic variables.<br />
Key theme 2: Perceptions of Maori offending are distorted<br />
It is my conjecture that, as far as our perceptions of Maori offending are<br />
concerned, reality has been overtaken by stereotypes <strong>and</strong> assorted<br />
misinformation much of which is generated by corporate media. In the book<br />
Simulacra <strong>and</strong> Simulation (1995), French social theorist Jean Baudrillard<br />
refers to this state of affairs as hyper-reality. Unfortunately, this hyper-reality<br />
(rather than a sound evidence base) has become the starting point for much<br />
research <strong>and</strong> policy. Our ability to correct this requires us to fully utilise the<br />
available evidence.<br />
Key theme 3: Existing data is under-utilised<br />
Braithwaite (1989) identified 13 powerful associations that all general theories<br />
of crime need to account for. These include, for example, the observation that<br />
80% of reported offending is committed by males, <strong>and</strong> that crime is<br />
disproportionately committed by those aged between 15 <strong>and</strong> 25 years. In New<br />
Zeal<strong>and</strong>, the data needed to characterise Maori representation in the criminal<br />
justice system along these lines, has been publicly available on the Statistics<br />
New Zeal<strong>and</strong> website for over 10 years. That data is rarely utilised in depth.<br />
Key theme 4: The research record is sparse<br />
Part of the problem with theorising about Maori offending is that the research<br />
record is discontinuous – we never take one theory <strong>and</strong> thoroughly test,<br />
enhance or re-examine it in light of new evidence. We just wait a few years for<br />
another to come along – usually from overseas. Although the record may<br />
seem broad it has little depth, <strong>and</strong> is actually small compared to other topics in<br />
criminal justice.<br />
Status quo<br />
Notwithst<strong>and</strong>ing the failure to account for Maori offence profiles, prevailing<br />
opinion seems to be divided between those who see socio-economic<br />
deprivation as key among numerous developmental <strong>and</strong>/or life course risk<br />
factors (trajectory <strong>and</strong> risk theorists), <strong>and</strong> those who see it as stemming from<br />
broad social inequalities (critical <strong>and</strong> counter-colonial criminologists). At<br />
present, no one is joining the two together though the connection seems<br />
obvious: colonisation generated broad social inequalities leading to<br />
deprivation, the deprivation causes the crime, causes the inequality, causes<br />
the deprivation.<br />
Of course, all of this is of very little help (or interest, probably) to the victims<br />
<strong>and</strong> offenders who find themselves caught up in the criminal justice system.<br />
While we wait for existing theory to be enhanced in light of better data, <strong>and</strong>/or<br />
for new theory to be developed, there is scope for using the data that we do<br />
have to initiate primary crime prevention initiatives where they are most
needed. However, their efficacy rests on the assumption that much offending<br />
is opportunistic, that is, it occurs on the spur of the moment without<br />
premeditation or planning. The basic idea, famously demonstrated by Mayhew<br />
et al., 1976), is that crime can be prevented by reducing opportunities for it to<br />
occur, using techniques developed under the rubric of situational crime<br />
prevention. Obviously, this does not address the underlying drivers of<br />
offending. But this may not be necessary for the large majority of people<br />
whose offending only occurs during adolescence.<br />
According to the data, then, what characteristics of volume crime among<br />
Māori are in most need of being addressed?<br />
'New' data<br />
In the most recent fiscal year, 2007/08, we know that 79% of all<br />
apprehensions of Māori were of males (72,186 out of 91,944), in accordance<br />
with the general rule that females are responsible for roughly 20% of reported<br />
offences.<br />
We can narrow the bulk of Maori apprehensions down to a relatively small<br />
number of offence classes/types. It is important to note, however, that family<br />
violence-related offending cuts across several different offence classes. When<br />
collated (n=17,106), it exceeds all of the individual offence classes/types<br />
noted above.<br />
There are some variations on this theme when the data is broken down by<br />
age/gender (excl family violence). For example, shoplifting accounts for 50%<br />
of 0-9 year old Maori girls' apprehensions <strong>and</strong> 25% of 0-9 year old Maori boys'<br />
apprehensions. "Disorder" <strong>and</strong> "assaults" tend to feature more prominently<br />
from 17 years of age onwards, as access to alcohol increases.<br />
Police apprehensions of Māori males <strong>and</strong> females are disproportionately of<br />
those aged between 14 <strong>and</strong> 30 years (see graph below). However, the age<br />
profiles do vary by offence category (as well as class <strong>and</strong> type). Age
distributions of traffic apprehensions are slightly more skewed toward the<br />
older age brackets, reflecting children <strong>and</strong> young peoples' relatively limited<br />
access to vehicles.<br />
In 2007/08 (<strong>and</strong> preceding years), the Police areas with the highest volumes<br />
of Maori apprehensions were: Hamilton city, Waitakere, Western Bay of<br />
Plenty, Whangarei, Rotorua, Auckl<strong>and</strong> city central, with some variations by<br />
age <strong>and</strong> gender. Generally, the further south you go, the lower the volume of<br />
Maori apprehensions.<br />
On converting apprehension volumes into “crude” apprehension rates 1 a more<br />
classical picture is obtained. Auckl<strong>and</strong> city has the highest rate of<br />
apprehensions at 1,322 apprehensions per 1,000 Māori with Christchurch<br />
central a distant second on 432 apprehensions per 1,000 Maori (the picture is<br />
broadly the same irrespective of gender, though the extent of the problem is<br />
worse for males). The conjecture is that the two rate hotspots are driven by<br />
commuters rather than residents. The question then becomes: From how far a<br />
field are these offenders travelling?<br />
Over the past 10 years, diversions have remained fairly steady at 1-2% of all<br />
resolutions. In 2007/08, Maori had the lowest proportion of cases resolved via<br />
diversion at 0.6%, while "Asiatics" had the highest (5.9%) - suggesting a<br />
possible model for good practice. Prosecutions have increased from 59% to<br />
69% overall <strong>and</strong> warnings/cautions have dropped from 22% to 16%. 71% of<br />
Maori (<strong>and</strong> "Pacific Isle") apprehensions are resolved by prosecution, 13% by<br />
warnings/cautions. For "Caucasians", the corresponding figures are 66% <strong>and</strong><br />
18%. Ethnic discrepancies in offence resolutions between Maori <strong>and</strong><br />
"Caucasians" appear most pronounced among 14-16 yr olds.<br />
1 Using 2006 census population data broken down by age, gender, ethnicity <strong>and</strong> Police area we can calculate a<br />
"crude" rate by dividing the total number of apprehensions by the population figures <strong>and</strong> multiplying by (say) 1,000. It<br />
is "crude" because it is assumes that each apprehension represents a discrete offender when we know that some<br />
offenders are responsible for multiple apprehensions.
Road policing data is particularly important to Maori offence profiles because<br />
"drink driving" is a driver of the Maori prison population. Ethnicity data is not<br />
recorded in a lot of traffic-related apprehensions. But where we do have the<br />
information, it reveals that drink driving dominates the four highest volume<br />
offence types for Maori. This is more so for Maori females (45%) than males<br />
(34%), <strong>and</strong> varies even more by age. Among Maori females aged 21-30, drink<br />
driving comprises 76% of the apprehensions for the four key offence types. By<br />
Police area, the highest volume of Maori traffic apprehensions were in the Far<br />
North, Western Bay of Plenty, Whangarei, Rotorua, CM central, CM south,<br />
Hamilton city, Gisborne, Hastings, Waitakere.<br />
Making the most of available evidence<br />
Most of us would have no difficulty in acknowledging the sources below as<br />
evidence. Yet, despite the shortage of Maori-specific evidence on offer, we<br />
rarely use all of these sources, let alone collectively.<br />
6 monthly Maori apprehensions dataset (SNZ)<br />
some analysis of NZCASS Maori findings (MoJ) available later in 2009,<br />
<strong>and</strong> triennially at best<br />
unpublished findings of TPK (assisted by MoJ, MWA, <strong>and</strong> Corrections)<br />
engagement with Maori providers, practitioners & offenders (2007)<br />
Moana Jackson’s colloquium (2008) <strong>and</strong> subsequent report (2009)<br />
longitudinal studies (ongoing)<br />
infrequent publications from Maori criminologists (Tauri, Webb, myself)<br />
I think we could also agree that we need many more than this if we are to<br />
address Maori offending. So, how do we generate more evidence?<br />
Not by looking offshore to theory constructed without reference to the local<br />
context. If we accept that all knowledge is socially constructed, <strong>and</strong> that what<br />
makes one point of view acceptable at any one time is not that it is more<br />
truthful than another but that it is backed by greater power resources, then I<br />
believe we must look to popular culture as a source of evidence. The views of<br />
very few people find expression in academic literature <strong>and</strong> policy circles. This<br />
is especially true for Maori. According to the 1996 Adult Literacy survey, 70%<br />
of Maori [45% of non-Maori] have literacy skills below what is regarded as the<br />
minimum level required to meet the "complex dem<strong>and</strong>s of everyday life <strong>and</strong><br />
work" in the emerging "knowledge society". More perspectives are heard in<br />
song lyrics, films, poetry, novels, biographies – the matatini performing arts<br />
festival is a classic example of this. Great Maori composers like Tuini Ngawai<br />
<strong>and</strong> her niece Ngoi Pewhairangi provided extensive commentary on a broad<br />
range of social, political <strong>and</strong> cultural issues through the performing arts. And<br />
their work was intimately linked with the Kotahitanga movement. I am not<br />
suggesting uncritical acceptance of this material, but what Clifford Geertz<br />
describes as analysis that searches for meaning, measured by the<br />
consistency <strong>and</strong> coherence of “thick description”.
Responding to offending by Maori<br />
There is no wonder drug for responding to Maori offending. Instead, there is a<br />
choice we all need to make. We can stick with the status quo, tinker at the<br />
fringes with ad hoc policy <strong>and</strong> research, jealously guarding our territory as<br />
though we have a monopoly on expertise <strong>and</strong> competence. But theory not<br />
based on robust evidence, which is what I propose we are relying too heavily<br />
upon, is guesswork (no matter how well educated). And guesswork,<br />
demonstrably, has a low probability of success.<br />
Or, we can start afresh, <strong>and</strong> engage with ALL of the available evidence,<br />
perhaps even invest in independent Maori research aligned to a proper<br />
characterisation of "the problem". We can use it to tell us where, when, how<br />
<strong>and</strong> with whom we need to make an impact if we are to reduce Maori<br />
offending <strong>and</strong> victimization. And we can work with the people who are directly<br />
affected by it, preferably while Maori offence profiles are relatively minor <strong>and</strong><br />
concentrated in few offence classes/types (i.e. before they reach the adult<br />
jurisdiction), to develop solutions.<br />
Whatever we do, unless it changes Maori criminal justice data, is ultimately<br />
doomed. Why? Because corporate media are wedded to crime news. As long<br />
as that crime news casts Maori in a consistently negative light, the discourse<br />
surrounding Maori crime won’t change; therefore nor will Maori criminal<br />
justice outcomes. As Foucault (cited in Davidson, 1997) famously said,<br />
discourse is not merely a surface inscription. It brings about effects.<br />
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