Historical and Current Trauma Impact on the Community and Individual

The court will need to know how, and which, aspects of historical and current trauma impact on the Aboriginal Offender waiting sentence and how they relate to a fit sentence in accordance with the Gladue Principles.

Remember, historical and resulting contemporary trauma impacts on many aspects of interaction between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian Justice System.

  • victimization – Aboriginal people are victimized more often (Statistics Canada 2006/08/10 ) 
  • reporting of crimes,
  • testifying,
  • provision of victim impact statements, 
  • coming into conflict with the law (offending), in fact Aboriginal people are overrepresented as offenders in the legal system,
  • incarceration, and 
  • re-offending, recidivism.
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