Press Release
Communities Basis for Doctorate
October 6, 1997
Darryl Wood, an assistant professor
in the Justice Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage,
has received his doctorate from the School of Criminology at
Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Wood joined the
Justice Center in 1995.
As the basis for his doctoral dissertation,
Violent Crime and Characteristics of Twelve Inuit Communities
in the Baffin Region, NWT, Wood examined possible influences
on the occurrence of violent crime in twelve Inuit communities
in the Baffin Region of the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Some of the findings of the study may have relevance for Alaska.
Although similar in many ways -- small
size, remote location, ethnically homogenous populations -- the
twelve Inuit communities studied exhibited different rates of
violent crime, providing a basis for comparison on the effects
of different factors.
Since it has been hypothesized
that the high violent crime rates found among certain indigenous
groups could be the result of social and economic changes wrought
by the colonization process of the last fifty years, Wood examined
levels of violence against the background of circumstances associated
with the colonization process. The study found little support
for the hypothesis that a direct link exists between crime and
social and economic underdevelopment, as it is defined in western
terms. Nor did it find a reliable connection between levels of
crime and external market forces such as those exemplified in
demise of the seal skin trade, with the consequent drop in income,
in some of the communities studied. There did, however, seem
to be some connection between levels of crime and the uprooting
and relocation of several communities which has occurred in the
last decades.
It has also been hypothesized extremely
frequently that a causal connection exists between alcohol consumption
and levels of violent crime in indigenous communities. Wood's
study first questioned whether alcohol consumption among indigenous
groups is higher than in the general population, as has been
commonly accepted. He found evidence that consumption is, in
fact, probably lower, thus fracturing a stereotypical picture
of native communities of the north. Studies across the circumpolar
region seem to indicate that among indigenous populations the
percentage of drinkers, on average, is lower than among the population
as a whole.
His study revealed that no discernible
association exists between total per capita consumption of alcoholic
beverages in the communities examined and the amount of violent
crime. The study did find that in those communities which could
be considered to have witnessed particularly poor models of drunken
behavior on the part of outsiders crime was consistently higher
than in those communities which may have had less poor models
of drinking behavior.
The study also revealed that legal
restrictions on the distribution of alcohol cannot be unreservedly
predictive of reduced levels of crime. In other words, that a
village had voted to be "dry" did not by itself result
in lower rates of violent crime.
Although Wood's study looked at
Canadian native communities, it may have some implications for
Alaska, particularly in its finding that legal prohibitions on
the sale and distribution of alcohol do not necessarily lead
to lower levels of violent crime and that such crime is not necessarily
a direct result of lack of economic development.
Wood feels that additional research
on the logistics and geography of liquor distribution might reveal
more about the nature of the connection between alcohol and crime.
He plans to continue looking at the connection between drinking
and violence in native communities in the circumpolar north.
Wood incorporates his research into his teaching, particularly
into those courses which deal with rural justice.
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