Intersectionality : the way forward for culture, diversity, and criminology within criminal justice systems

Intersectionality has been understood as layered identities contributing to the whole person. As discussed in Chapter 1, the more intersecting identities a person has, the more susceptible they are to certain experiences of marginalization. We have advocated that for cultural safety to be implemented into the practice, it must be underscored by cultural competence and its five constructs, with consideration of intersectionality. However, we further acknowledge that when addressing intersectionality agents may face limitations and barriers, impacting on their ability to deliver cultural safety. These limitations and barriers can include occurrences of Oppression Olympics, moral gatekeeping, and microaggressions. To compensate for these challenges, agents may adopt a neutral practice, from which we elaborate how this can impact on cultural safety and be overcome by examples of cultural competence skills/practices. We conclude this chapter by exploring an Australian-based, justice reinvestment case study"”the Maranguka Project"”to demonstrate how considerations of intersectionality and cultural competence practice can lead to cultural safety.