Māori Cultural Identity and Māori Offending

Abstract

In 2006, Māori were 15.7% of the population of New Zealand, and yet for about the last thirty years, we have been approximately 40% of annual apprehensions and 50% of annual prison inmates. In response to this phenomenon, the criminal justice system has asserted that a compromised Māori cultural identity has a positive relationship with the high rate of negative contact between Māori and the criminal justice system. Despite its dominance in criminal justice policy, this link has not been credibly proven through research. This research addresses that knowledge gap and analyses the theory that a compromised Māori cultural identity is a contributing factor to Māori offending. In doing so, it evaluates the current explanations for high rates of Māori offending, and ultimately, high rates of Māori imprisonment. The research has been methodologically grounded with kaupapa Māori. It employed a narrative method and created a discursive space for ten research participants. There were a number of factors that connected all ten participants: all identify as Māori; all are aged in their mid to late forties; all are convicted offenders; all have served at least five years in prison; and, were sent there in their late teens or early twenties. The combination of these characteristics places them at a critical point in time with regards to the rates of imprisonment of Māori people. They are amongst the first generation of Māori who were born into an urbanised Māori society as well as being amongst the first wave of young Māori who contributed to a 50% Māori prison population. It is this combination of factors that make this a group of people who can contribute to the primary focus of the study, to investigate whether there is a relationship between Māori cultural identity and Māori offending. The results of the study show that, despite the strength of conviction about the potential validity of the Māori cultural identity deficit theory, amongst these men at least there is little cause for celebration. The responses to the interviews show that Māori offending behaviour is more likely to be affected by a general array of socio-economic, demographic, educational and unemployment factors rather than the degree of Māori cultural identity inherent in Māori people.