POLICE CHARGING POLICIES & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - Native ...

noted that it was only in the last year (1992) that police and judges are willing tointerfere in domestic violence situations in their area. Aboriginal women feel guilty whencharges are laid and they have a hard time dealing with the guilt. They also sufferemotionally and economically when their partner is gone, particularly if they areostracized by the community. This may be one of the contributing factors explaining whyabused women take back abusive men once they have served their time. In child abusesituations, however, the social workers are notified first - before police.A high tolerance for community violence is evident where "political interference byIndian Act Chiefs and Council is quite common." There appears to be come ambiguity,however, as to whether Indian Act governments allow police on reserve to lay chargesin domestic violence situations.Police ResponseAboriginal women face a high community tolerance of violence against women, andviolence in general. A change in attitude at the community level is necessary tocondemn and stop the violence. Today, the majority of aboriginal peoples live in small,remote communities spread over 2,000 geographic locations. Most communities have apopulation of less than five hundred people. An Alberta study noted that:"In most Native communities, the interrelationships between families are veryclose: the total population is small and the number of children in each familytends to be large. As a result, a great many crimes involve family members ofeither victims or offenders. (1982: 18) 22In addition to spousal assault, family crime includes incest, or sexual abuse, andcommunity crimes including gang rape. Aboriginal communities need to adopt a zerotolerancepolicy against all kinds of violence.The most disturbing aspect of all this is child abuse. This abuse is both physical andsexual. All cultural groups have prohibitions against incest and sexual interference withchildren, but adherence to those rules appears to have broken down both in the broaderCanadian society and in Aboriginal society in Manitoba....Dr. Longstaffe said thesituations facing Aboriginal children on reserves were particularly worrisome. Thechildren often were the victims of multiple assaults from numerous, and often related,individuals, and often were threatened if they took their complaints to the authorities. Inreserve communities, the lack of communication between social agencies, and the lackof connection between the community and the justice system, led to a number ofdisturbing consequences… The report of the Child Advocacy Project stated:22Carol Pitcher LaPrairie, Native Women and Crime: A Theoretical Model (Ottawa: Ministry of the Solicitor-General ofCanada, 1986) at 5.Pg. 34