Historical and Current Trauma Impact on the Community and Individual

The court will need to know how, and which, aspects of historical and current trauma impact on the Indigenous offender waiting sentence and how they relate to a fit sentence in accordance with the Gladue Principles.

Remember, historical and resulting contemporary trauma impacts on many aspects of interaction between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian Justice System.

  • Victimization - Indigenous peoples are overrepresented as victims and convicted persons in Canada. Indigenous peoples are overrepresented as victims of physical and sexual violence, as well as of homicide. In 2019, Indigenous adults aged 35 to 54 years were three times more likely to report experiences of violent victimization than non-Indigenous adults in the same age group (Statistics Canada, 2022).
  • reporting of crimes,
  • testifying,
  • provision of victim impact statements, 
  • coming into conflict with the law (offending), in fact Indigenous people are overrepresented as offenders in the legal system,
  • incarceration, and 
  • re-offending, recidivism.

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