Crime in New Zealand - The Drivers of Crime

The Drivers of Crime

A range of developmental and early-age risk factors are known to be associated with a developmental pathway that increases the risk of (among other things) criminal involvement. One of them is suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a child. Professor Randolph Grace of the University of Canterbury, and Dr Audrey McKinlay from Melbourne's Monash University, studied children in Canterbury who had received a head injury before the age of 17. They found that moderate to severe TBI led to 'higher levels of malevolent aggression' and was a significant predictor of offending behaviour. About 36,000 new cases of TBI occur every year in New Zealand surpassing the number of heart attacks and more than five times the number of strokes. The number of cases is significantly higher than in other developed countries, and those most at risk are children, young adults, men, Maori and rural inhabitants.

Another risk factor is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) caused by the mother drinking while pregnant. This can cause damage to the frontal lobe of the baby's brain resulting in learning disabilities and lifelong physical, mental, and behavioural problems. Researchers at the University of Washington have estimated that more than half of children born with FASD encounter trouble with the law, whilst 35% are incarcerated at some stage during their lifetime. Canadian research with young offenders has found that more than one fifth are behaviourally impaired due to the condition. In New Zealand up to 3000 children a year are born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Auckland Judge, Tony Fitzgerald, has called for greater public and professional awareness of this issue and the need for better assessment and support facilities to respond to the high offending rates of individuals affected by FASD.

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." The forum noted that "Many of these issues are concentrated within socially and economically disadvantaged families and communities." In New Zealand, it seems these life circumstances are more likely to affect Maori families than non-Maori - which contributes to the comparatively high rates of offending by Maori. Loss of cultural identity and feelings of alienation among Maori youth in particular are a related factor.

In 2010 the Law Commission released a report on the social destruction caused by alcohol in New Zealand and quoted district court judges who said that 80% of all offending in New Zealand occurred under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Alcohol and drug counsellor, Roger Brooking, has expressed similar concerns and adds that judges order only 5% to 10% of offenders to attend treatment as part of their sentence. He also says that for a variety of reasons, the Corrections Department exacerbates the problem by putting very few prisoners into rehabilitation programmes. Brooking says "Because of these long-standing, multiple systemic failures, the justice system has become a vicious cycle from which it is extraordinarily difficult for any offender to break free - let alone the 80% affected by sustance abuse."

Internationally, the gap between the rich and poor has also been identified as a contributor to crime. It has been argued that as the income gap grows wider, statistics for child mortality, mental illness, teenage pregnancy, crime, imprisonment and a range of other factors all tend to increase. This may have particular relevance to New Zealand because income inequality has risen sharply since the mid-1980s coinciding with the introduction of neo-liberal economic policies by former Labour Party finance minister, Roger Douglas. A report released in 2011 by the Ministry of Social Development showed the gap had widened even further putting income inequality at its highest level ever. However, care needs to be taken in applying this theory to New Zealand; while income inequality has been growing, the crime rate in New Zealand has been dropping. Other social indicators, including the rate of imprisonment, have been increasing.