Cultural Values

Cultural Values is the 2nd expanded and revised edition of Crime and Violence in a Native American Indian Reservation (2009).

Rhetoric surrounding crime and violence among modern Native American Indians suggests that they experience higher rates and more violent forms of criminal victimization than any other group. Crime was not found to exist at the levels suggested by the national rhetoric of recent decades; rhetoric which often is fueled by flawed data found in official government reports. What does occur is in the form of violations of Indian cultural values, which is defined as cultural crime. Cultural crimes, which include violations of Title 25 - Indians of the United States Code and violations of American Indian cultural norms, have a much more harmful effect on the future of the tribe than the general types of crime. The natural process of acculturation due to globalization, has led to the development of a tripartite (three-level) criminal jurisdiction that exists today. Tribal police often respond to circumstances surrounding Indian Spirits. Witchcraft often is used as a means of informal social control among members of this group. This unprecedented study is also the first to empirically explore individual tribal responses to crime and violence.

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Review:

John Braithwaite, 2004 Edwin H. Sutherland Award recipient, American Society of Criminology and The Australian National University:

~ We had an Indigenous healing circle for serious offences here in Canberra where the young offender was sentenced by the elders to a research project to find out who his elders were on the mother and father side. I hope you manage to find that identity by being able to help some Ute person who you have learned to love ... You can be really proud of it (your 2009 "Crime and Violence"). I felt this was such an important conclusion at the end of Chapter 7:

"Shared strengths in Native American Indian ethnic pride in ones own cultural identity is required for group survival. Mutual respect for Native American Indian cultural values act as a shield to negative societal phenomena that often precipitates cracks in the social structure of the neighborhood and community; ultimately, making it susceptible to communal pathologies such as crime and victimization. The Ute tribal community is situated such that the means, desire and ability to enact and maintain a shared cultural and spiritual collective identity, which are the two most critical prophylactic elements to community victimization, are already active. In the Ute Indian community, resilience of this modern tribal nation is maintained and strengthened by the collective cultural and spiritual identity of the tribal members."