Ethnic Identity and Criminal Offending in a New Zealand Birth Cohort

Abstract

There has been a great deal of debate and speculation regarding the high levels of involvement of Māori New Zealanders in the criminal justice system. The present investigation examined the role of Māoricultural identity in predicting criminal offending in a New Zealand birth cohort studied from birth to the age of 21. There were statistically significant ( p < .0001) bivariate associations between both sole Māori identification and Māori/other cultural identification, and both (a) official convictions for property/violent offending during ages 17–21 and (b) selfreported violent and property offending during ages 17–21. Control for a range of potentially confounding factors related to family socioeconomic status, family functioning and personal adjustment reduced the associations between sole Māori identity and criminal offending to statistical nonsignificance (both p values > .40). However, the association between Māori/other cultural identity and criminal offending remained statistically significant (both p values < .05) after control for confounding. The findings suggest that while sole Māori cultural identification is not associated with increased rates of criminal offending, persons of Māori/other cultural identification are at increased risk of violent and property offending.