* Between 1999 and 2008, the number of charges prosecuted increased by 27 percent.
* From 1999 to 2008, the number of charges resulting in a conviction rose by 28 percent.
* The number of charges that were not proved increased by 29 percent from 1999 to 2008.
Consistent increase throughout. The population increased by 11 percent over the same time - the 15-40 year-old age group, from which most crime hails, increased by only 8 percent.
Between 2003 and 2008, the number of convictions for violent offences rose by 40 percent and the number of convictions for traffic offences rose by 29 percent.
Yet during the 2008 election campaign I constantly heard that crime, including violent crime, was decreasing. Yet every measure - victimisation reports through to conviction rates show the opposite.
# The prosecution rate was higher than average in many rural North Island areas (Figure 3). In 2008, rates ranged from less than 170 per 10,000 residents in Kaikoura, Te Awamutu, Waipukurau, Feilding, and Gore to over 450 per 10,000 residents in Rotorua, Kaikohe, Gisborne, Whangarei, and Taupo.
Ethnicity and gang factors. Not surprising but unsettling that some of NZ's most popular tourist destinations are relatively dangerous places.
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Total prosecutions look like this;
The number of people sentenced to imprisonment increased by 32 percent between 1999 and 2006. From 2006 to 2008 however, this number has decreased by 17 percent.
And yet the prison muster has just reached an all-time high. This must be due to longer sentencing/rejection of parole.
The number of offenders receiving deferment rose by 74 percent from 1999 to 2008.
The ONLY type of sentencing that is decreasing is imprisonment. But in 2008 2,479 convictions resulted in home detention sentences.
Overall, nothing to write home about.
3 comments:
I had a quick look at the stats and there doesn't seem to be any information about the severity of sentences, i.e. the length of sentences, whether that is increasing or decreasing. I believe the reason for NZs large and growing prison population is the comparitvely lenient sentences that are imposed. A prison sentence is not a deterent for many criminals.
Its not so much severity of sentence as proportion of sentence served. From 2008-2016 Justice Sector Prison Population Forecast
http://www.justice.govt.nz/search?SearchableText=prison+population+forecast
30% increase in Crime in the last few years of a Labour government!
you may be right that we should not be surprised, Lindsay, but this is totally and utterly disgusting!
Clearly we need greatly increased police numbers, and police powers to get a grip on things; double bunking in the prisons everywhere; and to go back to the old and effective ways of deterring serious crime!
What's even worse is that most of the West, but especially places like the US and Singapore, which still have effective sanctions not eviscerated by trendy liberalism, have had marked decreases in crime in exactly the same period. Even NZ had zero unemployment thanks to Labours tax-and-rort policies: once the recession really hits, and then the necessary reforms - this will go through the roof before it gets better!
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