Professor Jerry Flores recently discussed his investigation into murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada with the University of Toronto, Mississauga News. Professor Flores is working with local organizations to gather stories from Indigenous women on why they left home and the challenges they face in the city. His research contributes to the ongoing discussion surrounding murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada.
Jerry Flores is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, with teaching responsibilities at the Mississauga campus. His areas of interest include: studies of gender and crime, prison studies, alternative schools, ethnographic research methods, Latina/o sociology and studies of race and ethnicity.
The full article is available here. We have posted an excerpt below.
...Jerry Flores opens each of his interviews with a broad request: “Tell us your life story.”
The assistant professor of sociology at U of T Mississauga has been working closely with local organizations to gather stories from Indigenous women, asking them why they left home and what challenges they face in the city.
His aim is to tackle what he refers to as a “black eye” for Canada: missing and murdered Indigenous women and men.
Flores, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is of Mexican descent with Indigenous grandparents. He has found the stories of Indigenous women in Canada are eerily similar to those of young, incarcerated Latina women he previously spent three years talking with before publishing his first book.
The young Mexican women in Los Angeles, many of whom were of Indigenous descent, would often experience abuse in the home or start to fight with their family, they would run away, end up on the street and start engaging in high-risk behaviour or abusive relationships, Flores explains.
“In the US in general, they end up in the criminal justice system. Here they end up murdered or missing,” Flores says.
Read the full article here.