Crime in New Zealand - Crime Statistics

Crime Statistics

Crime statistics in New Zealand are collected in many different ways. Each method provides a different type of information, has different uses and different limitations which is why so many claims about crime trends reported in the media are inaccurate or misleading. New Zealand Police publish monthly statistics for a range of crime indicators, as well as statistical reports for each calendar (ending 31 December) and fiscal (ending 30 June) year. Historically, New Zealand Police has published crime statistics either in or with its annual reports, from as early as 1900. Statistics New Zealand also publish recorded crime statistics, based on Police data, in a web application that can produce statistical tables for each offence code. Statistics New Zealand also publishes the results of its own research and analysis of crime statistics, based on data from Police, the Ministry of Justice and its own surveys. From 1 July 2010, statistics for the New Zealand Justice sector began using the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) to classify and aggregate offence statistics.

The Ministry of Justice has conducted Crime and Safety Surveys in 2006 and 2009 to assess victimisation rates as well as other research about crime in New Zealand. Victim surveys tend to suggest that less than a third of 'crime' is actually reported to Police which is consistent with victimisation surveys in similar countries such as Australia, Britain and the USA. 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.

Resolution statistics

Between 1998 and 2007, the police became more effective at resolving crimes such that the resolution rate has gone from about 36% of all reported crimes to nearly 50%. For serious violence the resolution rate has gone from 71% to 80% and the murder resolution rate has gone from 62% to 91%. In the longer term, the percentages of resolved murder cases will be even higher as the Police report, that over time, they resolve close to 100% of all murder cases reported to them.