Print | E-mail

 

Tribal Crime and Justice: Law Enforcement

NIJ-funded research on American Indian and Alaska Native law enforcement has revealed the following:

• Stable and respected tribal governments with separate powers, who maintain control over all aspects of tribal institutions, are best positioned to address policing problems in their communities.To help communities develop a new policing strategy, researchers assessed the administration and efficacy of American Indian and Alaska Native policing and examined the viability of various policing strategies, including community policing, to address the crime problem in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Learn more from the NIJ Research Report Policing on American Indian Reservations.

• Culturally sensitive protocols help identify American Indian and Alaska Native Americans at risk for suicidal behavior. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among jail detainees, but research rarely explores the role of ethnicity and culture in this behavior. Researchers interviewed and surveyed detainees in a Northern Plains detention facility, and many American Indian and Alaska Native American detainees reported feeling uncomfortable with their assessments. Learn more from the NIJ Research for Practice American Indian Suicides in Jail: Can Risk Screening Be Culturally Sensitive?

Ongoing Research on Tribal Law Enforcement

Examining corrections facilities in Indian Country. Researchers will evaluate a two-year project that examines the conditions of juvenile and adult confinement in various Indian Country jurisdictions. On the basis of case studies from at least eight different sites, evaluators will assess how conditions differ between jurisdictions, how corrections facilities operate, and how different judicial and criminal systems affect corrections policy and practice.