Institutional Racism In The Criminal Justice System Essay

950 Words2 Pages

Institutional racism is when social institutions give negative treatment to people of a certain ethnicity, which in effect leads to inequalities. The UN (2015) states that only 15% of New Zealand’s population are Māori, and yet Māori make up over 50% of the prison population. The racism in the justice system means that people are being prosecuted based on the colour of their skin. With criminal behaviour connected with Māori, this leads to marginalisation, alienation and racism in other forms of society. I will discuss the state of Māori in New Zealand prisons, followed by what effect this has on the Māori community and also the implications this has on wider society.

New Zealand has the second highest imprisonment rate in the Western world (101 East, 2013). With Māori being overrepresented in all spectrums of the criminal justice system. The institutional racism that is present in the justice system links to the isolation and disconnection that many Māori will feel in New Zealand society. Quince (2014) states that ‘nearly 200 years of dispossession and alienation as a result of the colonising process that undermined Maori epistemologies and methods of dealing with harm within the community,’ is what causes Māori to fall into this cycle of crime. Where there is no connection in modern New Zealand society with
The systematic bias that Māori have mean that inequity will continue until something is done. However, since colonisation there has been no acceptance of Māori, and this is wrong. There are no advantages of institutionalised racism in the justice system, as more money is spent, more crime is happening, and it negatively affects the Māori population. All it does is advantage Pakeha unfairly and normally on the backs of minorities, such as

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