Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System

by Jeffrey Ian Ross (Editor), Larry Gould (Editor)

'This collection presents significant summaries of past criminal behavior, and significant new cultural and political contextualizations that provide greater understanding of the complex effects of crime, sovereignty, culture, and colonization on crime and criminalization on Indian reservations.' Duane Champagne, UCLA (From the Foreword) Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System offers a comprehensive approach to explaining the causes, effects, and solutions for the presence and plight of Native Americans in the criminal justice system. Articles from scholars and experts in Native American issues examine the ways in which society's response to Native Americans is often socially constructed. The contributors work to dispel the myths surrounding the crimes committed by Native Americans and assertions about the role of criminal justice agencies that interact with Native Americans. In doing so, the contributors emphasize the historical, social, and cultural roots of Anglo European conflicts with Native peoples and how they are manifested in the criminal justice system. Selected chapters also consider the global and cross-national ramifications of Native Americans and crime. This book systematically analyzes the broad nature of the subject area, including unique and emerging problems, theoretical issues, and policy implications.

290 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, College of Public Affairs, and a Research Fellow of the Center for International and Comparative Law, and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore. He has been a Visiting Professor at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and University of Padua, Italy.

He has researched, written, and lectured primarily on corrections, policing, political crime, state crime, crimes of the powerful, violence, street culture, and crime and justice in American Indian communities for over two decades. Ross’ work has appeared in many academic journals and books, as well as popular media. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of several books including the ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF STREET CULTURE (2021).

Ross is a respected subject matter expert for local, regional, national and international news media. He has made live appearances on CNN, CNBC, Fox News Network, MSNBC, and NBC. Additionally Ross has written op-eds for The (Baltimore) Sun, the Baltimore Examiner, The (Maryland) Daily Record, The Gazette, The Hill, Inside Higher Ed, and The Tampa Tribune.

From 1995-1998, Ross was a Social Science Analyst with the National Institute of Justice, a Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2003, he was awarded the University of Baltimore’s Distinguished Chair in Research Award. Ross is the co-founder of Convict Criminology, and former co-chair/chair of the Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice (2014-2017), of the American Society of Criminology. In 2018, Ross was given the Hans W. Mattick Award, “for an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of Criminology & Criminal Justice practice,” from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2020, he received the John Howard Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ Division of Corrections. The award is the ACJS Corrections Section’s most prestigious award, and was given because of his “outstanding research and service to the field of corrections.” During the early 1980s, Jeff worked almost four years in a correctional institution.