"Come from the Country and Succumbed to the Lure of the City"?: Maori and Pakeha Female Incarceration in New Zealand, 1870-1945.

Kris Inwood, University of Guelph
Evan Roberts, University of Minnesota

Different patterns of imprisonment for settlers and Indigenous peoples reflect the race-based extension of imperial power and Indigenous resistance. Most research on Indigenous incarceration in colonial and post-colonial societies has examined men. Since the mid-20th century Indigenous men in North America and Australasia have experienced much higher rates of incarceration than whites. Despite significant contemporary attention to female incarceration8, and higher rates of imprisonment of Indigenous women in settler societies today, there has been little investigation into the historical origins of imprisonment for Indigenous women. In this paper we examine conviction and incarceration patterns of White (Pakeha) and Maori women in New Zealand between 1870 and 1945. Using data from the Police Gazette, which reported systematically on people released from prison or serving suspended sentences we can identify nearly all Maori women convicted in this era, and a matched sample of Pakeha women, retrieving further information about cases from newspapers. Conviction and incarceration rates were low for women compared to men, although rates rose during both World Wars. Through the early twentieth century Maori and Pakeha came into greater contact, and inter-marriage grew, increasing the likelihood of interactions attracting judicial attention. Maori and Pakeha women's convictions and sentencing were qualitatively different. Property crimes were more common reasons for Maori women to be incarcerated, while Pakeha were more often imprisoned for crimes related to drunkenness, vagrancy, or prostitution. Maori women were less likely to be imprisoned until the 1930s. Our work suggests that, as for men, the history of Indigenous women's imprisonment reveals settler norms for Indigenous behavior, and the extent and type of interaction between white and Indigenous peoples. The relatively low rate of incarcerating Maori women until the 1930s echoes the experience of men, and suggests the extension of state power through the criminal justice system took many decades.

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 Presented in Session 218. Crime, Justice and Historical Criminology