Meeting the Needs of Aboriginal Youth in the Ontario Justice System: Reconciling Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Ways of Knowing: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Using a qualitative, exploratory design and drawing on interpretivist, postcolonial, and decolonizing frameworks, this study sought to comprehend the perceptions of justice system personnel and Aboriginal service users about Aboriginal-specific, community-based justice programming and to better understand the factors that influence successful referral and access to these programs within community-sentencing and probation contexts. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants (youth court judges, crown attorneys, youth court workers, youth probation officers, service providers, and Aboriginal service users) and thematic analysis was employed to identify key themes. Results indicate that there is strong support for Aboriginal-specific, community-based programming within the youth justice community. However, barriers to matching Aboriginal service users with Aboriginal programming are numerous and include poor communication between mainstream and Aboriginal justice partners and inconsistency in Aboriginal-specific program offerings, among others. Findings are also discussed in reference to the Risk-Need-Responsivity framework.M.A.2018-02-28 00:00:0