First national survey by justice ministry finds Māori more likely to be victims of crime

Māori are bearing the brunt as victims of crime in New Zealand, with a landmark survey suggesting that seven times more crimes occur than end up being recorded by police.

Eight thousand people were interviewed for the Ministry of Justice’s crimes and victims survey, the country’s first, with 29% of New Zealanders saying they had been a victim of crime in the past 12 months.

The survey found 1.77m crimes were committed in the past year but only a fraction – 256,000 – were then reported to police and recorded officially.

Burglary, harassment and fraud were the most common crimes committed in New Zealand, and Māori people were more likely to be victims of crime, with 37% of indigenous respondents reporting being the victim of a criminal incident in the past year.

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Men and women were equally likely to be victims of crime (at 29% each), but women were more likely to experience domestic and sexual violence from a partner, with 34% of women reporting having experienced one or more incidents of sexual violence in their lifetime.

People over 65 years were the least likely to be victims of crime, with just 18% reporting an experience, while people aged 20-29 were at the highest risk, with 40% reporting an experience in the past year.

James Swindells, the head of research at the justice ministry, said 68% of crimes were perpetrated against people, while 32% were against property. People living in the three major cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all had the same liklihood of being a victim.

Dr Liam Martin, a criminologist at Victoria University, said the reasons for low reporting of crime were complex, but when it came to family violence victims were worried about getting their partner in trouble, suspicious of police, and concerned about being “re-traumatised” by the police process.

Martin said Māori had been marginalised in New Zealand society over many generations, and the most marginalised and vulnerable in society were always at the greatest risk to become victims of crime.

“Interpersonal violence strongly follows social marginalisation, and Māori are marginalised in so many ways,” said Martin. “I think ending violence through social uplift should be the first step to addressing these entrenched issues. Our most victimised people are our most marginalised, so targeting those bigger social problems acts as a violence prevention strategy. We need to think in bigger terms than this just being a criminal justice problem.”

Martin added that violent crime had been trending down for 30 years in New Zealand, and the murder rate had dropped by a third.