Neo-Colonial Injustice and the Mass Imprisonment of Indigenous Women

In this review of Neo-Colonial Injustice and the Mass Imprisonment of Indigenous Women, the bottom line is clear: this edited volume is essential reading for scholars, advocates, and policymakers seeking a comparative, decolonizing perspective on why Indigenous women are disproportionately incarcerated across settler-colonial states. The collection's biggest strength is its focused, intersectional analysis of legal, social and institutional mechanisms that reproduce White-settler supremacy, making it a rigorous resource for anyone researching criminal justice reform, Indigenous rights, or social policy reform.

Key Features

• Comparative focus: Examines incarceration patterns across the US, Australia, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand, making cross-jurisdictional similarities and differences clear for comparative researchers.
• Decolonizing lens: Uses intersectional and decolonizing frameworks to reveal how neo-colonial institutions shape criminalization and disadvantage for Indigenous women.
• Edited collection: Brings together multiple expert voices to provide varied methodological and disciplinary perspectives on the same social problem.
• Policy relevance: Illuminates how policies, laws and institutional failures maintain disproportionate incarceration and hinder meaningful reform.
• Focus on social impact: Addresses the broader consequences of womens incarceration, including effects on children, partners and families.

Who It's For

This book will be most valuable to academics in criminology, Indigenous studies and social policy, as well as legal scholars and advocates working on prison reform and Indigenous justice. Graduate students preparing literature reviews on colonization and criminal justice will find the comparative chapters especially useful for situating research in an international context.

Practitioners seeking quick how-to solutions or a step-by-step policy manual should look elsewhere; this volume is analytical rather than a practitioner toolkit, and its strength lies in critique, historical context and theoretical framing rather than operational checklists.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Provides a rigorous comparative analysis across four settler-colonial states, useful for cross-national study.
• Centers Indigenous experiences with a clear decolonizing perspective that challenges mainstream criminological narratives.
• Connects policy and law to real-world outcomes, offering a strong link between theory and social impact.

Cons

• As an edited academic collection, it is more theoretical and descriptive than a practical implementation guide for frontline reformers.

Specifications

Title	Neo-Colonial Injustice and the Mass Imprisonment of Indigenous Women
Series	Palgrave Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Indigeneity and Criminal Justice
Editors/Authors	Lily George, Adele N. Norris, Antje Deckert, Juan Tauri
Scope	Comparative study of US, Australia, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand
Focus	Mass incarceration of Indigenous women and institutional/neo-colonial causes
Approach	Decolonizing, intersectional, interdisciplinary edited collection

Our Verdict

Neo-Colonial Injustice is a thoughtful, well-sourced academic collection that is indispensable for researchers, policy analysts and advocates focused on Indigenous justice and mass incarceration. Its comparative, decolonizing approach offers long-term value for shaping critical scholarship and informing reform debates, though readers seeking operational toolkits will need to supplement with practice-oriented resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this book compare multiple countries?
Yes. The collection explicitly examines the US, Australia, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand to draw comparative insights about incarceration of Indigenous women.

Is this a practical guide for policymakers?
Not primarily; the book is analytical and theoretical, aimed at scholars and advocates rather than providing step-by-step policy implementation templates.

Who edited the volume?
The editors and contributing authors include Lily George, Adele N. Norris, Antje Deckert and Juan Tauri, who bring interdisciplinary expertise to the topic.