Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 1989) 

Abstract

The Spring 1989 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum presents the second of two articles analyzing Alaska crime trends; Uniform Crime Reporting data and additional data compiled by the Alaska State Troopers are used to analyze 1963–1987 statewide trends for each of the seven criminal offenses included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime index (arson is not included). The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on federal and state correctional populations at yearend 1988, finding an increase of 7.4% over 1987 figures and a 90% increase from the 1980 prison population. In an exerpt from a longer paper on the problem of providing legal advice to Alaska Native villages, the author argues that villages may gain short-term control over problems such as alcohol and substance abuse through informal “demi-law” approaches, but ultimately they need to challenge the formal laws which block them from exerting local village authority.