Criminology, Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

The bulk of criminological research in relation to Indigenous people has been narrowly confined to "Indigenous crime" and traditionally sees state criminal justice responses as the more or less technical application of laws, policies and procedures to control crime. Most government-employed "administrative" criminologists steer as far away as possible from the issue of human rights. This chapter argues that bringing a human rights perspective to criminology and Indigenous people is an important task. It opens up a new level of research, analysis and theory building, and can directly contribute to identifying and remedying human rights abuses.