Crime snapshot

Here's some interesting statistics from Richard Worth's Newsworthy;

In 2004 there were: - 167 arrests for every 10,000 Asians in New Zealand - 320 arrests for every 10,000 Europeans, and - 1,448 arrests for every 10,000 Maori.

Having caught my attention I thought I'd find out what the arrests were for. Unfortunately I had to settle for a 2003 breakdown.

For all three, the major offence was Dishonesty, the respective percentages were Asian 31, European 31, Maori 36.5

For Maori and European the second biggest category was Drugs and Anti-social offences with Maori 24 percent and European 30.

The second biggest reason for Asian apprehensions was Violence at 23 percent

The third for Maori and European was Violence at 18 and 16 percent respectively,

Third for Asians was Drugs and Anti-social offences at 18 percent.

The other offences were Property Damage and Abuse and lastly, Administrative offences, where Asians were prominent at 14 percent compared to Maori 7 and European 5 percent....

...bearing in mind, of the total apprehensions for these three groups, Asians made up 2 percent, Maori 45 and Europeans 53 percent. I think Worth's intention was to dispel the impression that Asian crime is high. It isn't. Not when they make up about 7 percent of the population.