Abstract
Mental health professionals and paraprofessionals assessing Native offenders, prison inmates and accused, find them passive, difficult to assess, and not forthcoming. The behavior which reflects the influence of Native culture is misinterpreted frequently by clinicians, unfamiliar with that culture, as evidence of psychopathology, deviousness, dishonesty, and deliberate attempts to misinform the assessor. In fact, the Native person is behaving according to a complicated set of rules and expectations of his own culture, which make him present in such a fashion that his behavior is misinterpreted as dishonest. Some social and cultural aspects of the Native community and its roles, rules, and expectations are presented to better understand the Native offender and his behavior in an assessment situation. Failure to recognize and understand cultural influences can lead to errors in perception, diagnoses, and treatment.
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