Note
"Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Ottawa, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Criminology", 1976.
Summary
This study examined the opinion of members of RCMP from detachments policing Indian reserves on whether police officers' lack of knowledge of the cultural heritage of the Indian people and their soci-economic conditions was mainly, if not wholly, responsible for the problems encountered in policing Indian people. Questionnaires were distributed to detachments policing Indian reserves in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Responses were received from 41 of the 59 detachments. Analysis of the data indicated that: the problems of policing are interwoven with problems of cultural contact and acculturation, but not with the policeman's lack of knowledge of Indian culture; that Indian criminality is influenced by identification with non-native populations, and that police attempts to promote this identification alleviate the problem; and that both Indians and the police define themselves in negative polarity with the other. The author suggests that the destruction of the perception of cultural differences is necessary to solve the problems. This could be achieved by integrating the policeman into the Indian culture, or by integrating the Indian into non-Indian culture.