Crime in New Zealand

Less serious breaches of the law are dealt with under legislation such as the Summary Offences Act 1981, where penalties are more often a fine or other community sanctions rather than imprisonment.

[9][10] First offenders charged with minor crimes and accepting full responsibility of their actions are considered for the New Zealand Police Adult Diversion Scheme.

[11] Family Group Conferences (FGC) are a type of statutory forum for youth offenders in which a child or young person, the victim of an alleged offence, family, whānau, hapū, iwi and supporters, and state and community representatives meet to decide how to best respond to the offending behaviour.

[22][21] The Salvation Army's 2019 State of the Nation Report observes there is a lack of reliable data about criminal offending, particularly for domestic violence.

[25] However, victim surveys also include reports of relatively minor matters which would not necessarily be seen as crimes by the justice system so interpretation of the figures is difficult.

Deputy Police Commissioner Viv Rickard said "This decrease appears to be partly due to the public not wanting to bother us with minor matters when they knew we were dealing with the earthquake.

[36] Sir David Carruthers, a former Chief District Court Judge and now head of the Independent Police Conduct Authority, says the drop in the crime rate in New Zealand is partly due to a drive to reduce the number of teenagers being suspended or expelled from school.

In April 2022, Police Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers estimated that 88% of offenders involved in ram raids were below the age of 20 and that the majority were under 17 years old.

Another contributing factor is the relative ease of stealing vehicles; the country has a large number of used ex-Japan car models such as the Mazda Demio, Mazda Atenza, Nissan Tiida and Toyota Aqua which, due to Japan's low crime rate, often lack anti-theft measures such as immobilisers.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recognised the large number of offences committed by young ram raiders, she emphasised that the government preferred solutions that did not involve incarceration in order to reduce reoffending.

The fund is intended to allow stores to procure protective equipment such as shatterproof glass, bollards, fog cannons, and roller doors.

[48] A more recent study in 2009 by Dr Michael Rowe, also from Victoria University, found "an overwhelming public belief that crime has got worse" despite New Zealand's murder rate dropping by almost half in the past 20 years.

[52] The index is based on 23 indicators including corruption, violence, crime rates, military spending and access to primary education.

[53] New Zealand's approach to deterrence and remedy of white-collar crime, brought to widespread public attention after 1992 with the Renshaw Edwards and the Equiticorp cases.

As financial crime can be complex (e.g. blue-collar, white-collar, fraud, tax evasion),[54] lawyers were involved in shady deals of the cases, and New Zealand set a precedent by levying a fee of ten thousand dollars on all senior lawyers of the NZ Law Society, raising NZD$28,000,000, which served both the victims of white-collar crime and public awareness.

The survey also showed that offences involving violence by strangers and damage to property were less likely to be reported and that four in ten Māori were unable to name any community service that was available for victims.

[59] The 2019 Crime and Victims Survey found that the higher victimisation rates for Māori, when controlled for both age and the level of deprivation, were not statistically significant.

[64] A report by the Corrections Department says: "The figures lend themselves to extremist interpretations: at one end, some accuse the criminal justice system of being brutally racist, as either intentionally or unintentionally destructive to the interests and well-being of Māori as a people.

[65] A forum held at Parliament in 2009 on the Drivers of Crime in New Zealand identified mainly socio-economic factors contributing to crime such as: "Family dysfunction; child maltreatment; poor educational achievement; harmful drinking and drug use; poor mental health; severe behavioural problems among children and young people; and the intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour.

[additional citation(s) needed] This included improving support for maternity services and early parenting, addressing conduct and behavioural problems in childhood, reducing the social destruction caused by alcohol (and increasing treatment options for problem drinkers), and improving the management of low-level repeat offenders.

Interventions the National led Government has adopted in this area include increasing the number of intensive case workers to support vulnerable teenage parents and attempts to improve participation in early childhood education.

A key government proposal in this area is the establishment of programmes to strengthen positive behaviour and reduce bullying at school.

[70][better source needed] In 2008 three-quarters of primary school children reported being bullied, ranking New Zealand second worst out of 35 countries in a major international study.

[71][72] To address the harm caused by alcohol, the Government asked the Law Commission to conduct a comprehensive investigation into New Zealand's liquor legislation.

The Commission received thousands of submissions and their investigation took over two years leading to the release of a 500-page in-depth report: Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm.

However, the Bill was widely criticised by health professionals for failing to address six key evidenced-based recommendations put forward by the Commission.

[73] The six included raising the price, making the extra revenue available for the treatment of problem drinkers, banning television and radio advertising of alcohol, reducing trading hours of bars and clubs, reducing the number of outlets allowed to sell alcohol and raising the purchase age back to 20 years.

[83] Indeed, Professor John Pratt of Victoria University in Wellington says that while crime is driven primarily by socio-economic factors, the growing rate of imprisonment in Western countries has been driven by penal populism – a process whereby the major political parties compete with each to be "tough on crime" by proposing laws which create longer sentences and increase the use of remand prior to sentencing.

[85] In July 2009 Dame Sian Elias, the Chief Justice, argued against what she described as the "punitive and knee-jerk" responses to crime because of its potential consequences for prison overcrowding.

[86] In a controversial speech to the Wellington District Law Society, she called for a more rational approach to penal policy and said the focus on victims had made courtrooms "very angry places"[87] and had put at risk the impartial system of deciding criminal blame.