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Showing posts with label Maori and the justice system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maori and the justice system. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2026

Geoff Parker: Risk, Not Race, Drives Justice Outcomes


Matthew Tukaki’s two-part Radio Waatea series (Part One, Part Two) presents Māori over-representation in the criminal justice system as proof of systemic bias operating “at every stage” — from policing to sentencing. It is a compelling story. It is also an incomplete one.

The core claim running through the series is that disparity equals discrimination. But disparity alone does not establish bias. Any serious analysis must ask a more uncomfortable question: are justice outcomes primarily driven by ethnicity, or by differences in offending patterns, prior convictions, and risk factors that the system is legally required to consider?