Pamela Vlasic

The Lives Behind the Numbers: Understanding the Disproportionate Representation of Aboriginal Women in the Canadian Legal System Pamela Vlasic

In Canada, Aboriginal women are over-represented in the legal system in comparison with their non-native counterparts. In fact, they are the most disproportionately represented segment of those who come into conflict with the law in Canada. Year after year these numbers persist; in an attempt to understand this troubling pattern, this book explores the voices and lives of those who make up those statistics. Interviews were conducted with professionals within the social services, as well as native women who are presently in conflict with the law in order to gain a more complete understanding of this unsettling social problem. The professional interviewees provided a macro-level approach, focusing more on historical factors and differences in worldview between the native culture and mainstream society. The interviews with native women who are in conflict with the law focused more on a micro-perspective approach, centring on personal, social and economic factors that have increased their risk of coming into conflict with the law.