Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Indigenous youth are grossly overrepresented at all stages of the criminal justice system. While preliminary research has identified the effectiveness of tools based on the Risk-Need-Responsivity and Structured Professional Judgement models, many of these risk assessments have been criticized as being biased and insensitive to the cultural and historical factors impacting Indigenous youth. For example, the role of cultural connectedness as a protective factor in the prevention of ill health, violence, and criminalization has not been conceptualized or measured in a risk assessment framework, despite research demonstrating the benefits of cultural connectedness in mental wellness and social outcomes for Indigenous youth. Developing such conceptualization and measurement is a vital foundation to understand the healing and reintegration journeys of Indigenous youth and will add to knowledge in the field by highlighting the risk of making life-changing decisions (bail conditions, supervision, level of security) without considering complex factors such as culture, identity, and colonial harms. As the first step in the development of an Indigenous-lead research agenda on the issue, the Culture is Protection Gathering on Youth Violence Prevention will bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, knowledge users, and Indigenous youth with lived experience to work together to identify important research questions and emerging program, practice and policy issues related to the role of culture in understanding, managing and preventing Indigenous youth violence and criminalization in Canada. The gathering will build consensus on the meaning and role of cultural connectedness in Indigenous youth violence prevention, capture research priorities, and build partnerships and plans for a multi-year Indigenous-led research agenda to explore the identified priorities, including plans to collaborate on applications for project grants.