Social policy & Parliamentary unit

Crime and Punishment

The New Zealand criminal justice system involves multiple agencies working together to improve safety and deliver accessible justice for victims and hold offenders accountable. However, only 28 percent of crimes are reported to the police, reflecting an incomplete picture of the criminal landscape. According to the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) Cycle 6, 32 percent of adults experienced at least 1.8 million offences in 2022/23 this estimate would include reported and unreported crime. For crimes reported to the police in the past year, the rate of alleged offenders being charged declined by 2 percent, while proceedings dropped by 3.5 percent. This continues a decade-long trend, with arrests and charges decreasing by 41.2 percent and 39.3 percent, respectively, since 2015.

Victimisation rates fell by 3.9 percent—the first decline since 2019—but remain 29 percent higher than in 2015, largely due to increased awareness and improved reporting of underreported crimes like family harm. There were 207,846 victims reported to police, which is a decline of 9.5 percent in the past year.

Summary of police proceedings and reports of victimisation per 100,000 people—2015–2024 (June years)

The NZCVS showed that in 2023, an estimated 1.6 percent of the adult population (about 70,000 people) experienced one or more family offences. Of these, 1.2 percent, were victimised by intimate partners, while 0.5 percent were harmed by other family members, as shown below. This is the lowest recorded family-violence victimisation rate in at least six NZCVS cycles.

NZCVS—percentage of adults experiencing at least one family violence offence—2018–2023

The number of people in prison continued to grow during the year, reaching almost 10,000 in late 2024; recidivism rates also increased.

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Data: Crime and Punishment Interactive Dashboard

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