Culture as Healing: A Delphi Study on Access to Culture and Justice Involvement for Indigenous Persons

Among other factors, Indigenous peoples’ unique cultures must be considered in decisions throughout Canada’s criminal legal system, including bail, sentencing, parole, and corrections. However, several studies have found weak implementation of these obligations in practice. Existing literature speaks to the importance of culture-based interventions for Indigenous persons in many contexts and from many distinct disciplinary perspectives. However, it is unclear where consensus can be found on basic contours of the relationship between access to culture and justice involvement for Indigenous persons. Consensus is an important threshold, as it can support judges and other adjudicative decision-makers considering expertise from outside law without an expert witness. To support greater rigour and consistency in how adjudicative decision-makers in the criminal legal system approach culture-based interventions for Indigenous persons, this study used the Delphi method to determine where consensus could be identified among subject matter experts. The findings outline substantial areas of agreement amongst a group of experts that included both academic and front-line experts. The scope of consensus and the implications of these findings for the consideration of Indigenous cultures in the criminal legal system are discussed.