[7] Children aged between 10 and 14 years inclusive have the rebuttable presumption of incapacity to commit a crime; they cannot be charged unless the prosecution can prove the child knew what they were doing was a criminal offence.

[8] Sections 50, 169 and 170 dealt with the provocation defence which mitigated fatal assaults to the lesser charge and penalty due to manslaughter, rather than murder.

[3] Includes duties tending to the preservation of life; homicide; murder and manslaughter; abortion; assaults and injuries to the person; female genital mutilation; bigamy and feigned marriage; and abduction and kidnapping.

One recommendation from the commissioners that consolidated the New Zealand statutes, prior to enactment of the Statutes Revision Act 1879 that allowed for their reprinting, was that the criminal law should be codified in a way that suited New Zealand conditions, rather than merely adopting similar legislative changes being debated in 1880 by the British Parliament.

The bill was finally passed at the end of September 1893 and the Criminal Code Act 1893 received royal assent on 6 October 1893.

However, due to growing general public opposition to the death penalty, reformist New Zealand National Party Minister of Justice Ralph Hanan and other National MPs exercised a conscience vote and voted with the abolitionist New Zealand Labour Party to forbid judges passing sentence of death other than in cases of treason.

[16] Amendments in 1985 resulted in crime of rape being replaced with one of sexual violation, a similar offence but without gender specificity.

[24] In March 2019, Parliament unanimously passed the Crimes Amendment Bill abolishing Section 123, which dealt with the offense of blasphemy, in accordance with modern religious pluralism and free speech sensibilities.

[25][26] In 1987, Section 187A of the Crimes Act was inserted, permitting abortion on the grounds of saving the mother's life, mental health, and physical health; foetal abnormality within the 20 weeks gestation period; and incest or sexual intercourse with guardians and family members.

[32] Euthanasia in New Zealand was formerly illegal under Sections 160 (culpable homicide), 173 (attempting to murder) and 179 (aiding and abetting suicide).

[34] A binding referendum was held during the 2020 general election in September 2020 to pass the End of Life Choice Bill into law.

[37] In 2019, the Crimes Amendment Act 2019 (No 4) introduced the concept of Burglary of agricultural land along with increasing penalties for Theft of animals, in response to increasing reports of stock rustling as well as nighttime hunting, slaughtering and butchering of farm animals in roadside fields.