90 Maranga Mai! and health system that did not accept them. The colonisation of Indigenous youth alongside urbanisation and experiences of alienation and racist policing and sentencing causes prison rates to accelerate exponentially (Taonui, 2021). Racist profiling Racial profiling policing leads to more Māori than Pākehā being identified and treated by the police as suspects (Maxwell and Smith, 1998, p. 34). Discretion in decision-making is a core aspect of the criminal justice system (Department of Corrections, 2007, p. 11) and is “pervasive” from the decision to report incidents as a crime, through to prosecution, sentencing and parole (Latu and Lucas, 2008, p. 85). The wide nature of police discretion, coupled with little transparency over its exercise, brings with it conscious and unconscious racial biases (Kim Workman & Associates Ltd, 1999, p. 14; Latu and Lucas, 2008, p. 87): The issue of structural discrimination and ethnic bias runs across the criminal justice sector. The police are at the front end of the system, and particularly vulnerable (Workman, 2011, p. 24). More recent research by JustSpeak shows significant biases exist against Māori. Māori have reported: • Being stopped and searched by police on the pretext of criminal suspicion. • Racist verbal abuse from police. • Physical abuse from police. • More frequent strip searches. • Disrespect for tikanga Māori (JustSpeak, 2020, p. 1; Te Whaiti and Roguski, 1998, p. 2). One study reported the case of a tamariki Māori being stopped by the police: When out on his birthday bike, taking temporary possession of it and inspecting it meticulously in case he had stolen it (Pack, Tuffin & Lyons, 2016, p. 98). Numerous Māori have also reported the use of violence and intimidation by the police, during arrest and in custody (Kim Workman & Associates Ltd, 1999, p. 12). Māori perceptions of racist profiling In 1998, Te Puni Kōkiri and the New Zealand Police commissioned research on Māori perceptions of the police. This research found: Participants were unanimous in their perception that the police institution is a racist institution that perpetuates strong anti-Māori attitudes (Te Whaiti, and Roguski, 1998, p. 2). Māori are aware that ‘looking Māori’ means the Police are more likely to stop you: The police used to stop [my son], and he’d come home, and he’d say to me oh Mum! You know and I’d say what are you late home for? And he’d say oh the police stopped me. What for? Oh, they didn’t even tell me. And then he had European friends too, and they were allowed to go (Pack, Tuffin & Lyons, 2016, p. 33). Māori driving “a ‘flash’ car” also tend to be stopped by police (James, 2000, p. 16): When me and Tipene used to go in the car and that, we were pulled over all the time. I think it was cause like the car and driver and that they could see brown faces in it. Oh, it was just happening all the time. We were getting sick of it. One time they chased us. They said that they saw Tipene’s face and thought he knew something. And it was, yeah, it was just ridiculous (Prasad, 2000, p. 117). In another example: In the words of a young 19-year-old Māori that we interviewed recently, “If you look brown you go down” (Johnsen, 2020; see also Workman, 2011, p. 10). Another study found racial profiling even when the Māori person was the one reporting the crime: I remember when I was working at [name of shop] and um we caught some shoplifters. And the police officer walked in, and I said… ‘Shall I take you upstairs?’ And he goes ‘Yes, I’ll take you upstairs right now.’ And he thought I was the shoplifter! …I’m pretty sure it’s because I was brown. There was another time, I was sitting in the cafeteria, and the police officer walks in and goes ‘Oh yeah, this is her is it?’, thinking I was the shoplifter waiting (Prasad, 2000, p. 119).