New figures from the 2024 New Zealand Crime & Victims Survey show a rare piece of good news on the property-crime front, with home burglaries finally losing momentum. Break-ins have fallen by an estimated 71,000 incidents since 2018, a nine-per-cent drop in overall household crime.
Ministry of Justice’s General Manager of Sector Insights, Rebecca Parish, attributes the decline largely to technology.
“What we’re attributing it to is a greater use of the home-surveillance technology. We’ve seen quite an increase in New Zealand of that use, and it’s also what we’re seeing around the rest of the world,” says Parish.
Although overall crime has fallen since 2018, one figure is climbing fast; the share of sexual-assault victims who report to Police has risen from 7 percent to 32 percent.
This can be attributed to easier online reporting portals, specialist survivor units, and the impact of social media movements.
Parish says, “That’s a really positive trend and we are putting that down to greater awareness.”
So things like the #MeToo campaign, the ‘White Ribbon’ campaign, even some of the reporting on high-profile court cases.”
From #MeToo to “She Is Not Your Rehab” to charities like BRAVE
Whether it’s the global #MeToo wave, Aotearoa’s own “She Is Not Your Rehab” kaupapa, or the current high-profile US lawsuit involving Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, the public discourse is emboldening survivors to speak out.
Child sexual-abuse survivor and founder of BRAVE charity Jessica Tyson agrees, saying one of the other big contributing factors is the fact that these issues about sexual violence can be spoken about online through social media.
“That’s a platform that I use for BRAVE to create messages to educate people about healthy relationships.
And just to (show) how to start a conversation. And I think, you know, without that, I don’t think the world would be as advanced when it comes to talking about these really sensitive taboo topics,” says Tyson.
While the overall prevalence of sexual assault remains unchanged, reporting behaviour has transformed significantly.
Tyson says, “I find it really encouraging, I think, to hear that, you know, victims perhaps maybe feeling more comfortable to speak or report their experiences.”
Māori are still over-represented in discrimination
Despite recent improvements, one in six adults still experience discrimination, disproportionately affecting Māori and Pacific peoples across the justice system, from police contact to sentencing outcomes.
Criminologists argue that more granular data is critical to refining both funding decisions and policy interventions.
Parish notes that nearly half of New Zealand’s population has had some form of direct interaction with the criminal justice system.
“They (New Zealanders) have slightly lower trust and confidence at 40%, but the interesting thing was that despite that, their rating of 92% felt they were treated fairly through that process,” says Parish.
