After researching poverty internationally for over 20 years, Darrin Hodgetts finds a "victim-blaming, punitive approach" to welfare in his home country New Zealand, where the poor are punished for being poor.

Professor Hodgetts talks with Wallace Chapman about the need for a more caring and humane approach to New Zealanders in poverty.

Darrin Hodgetts is professor of societal psychology at Massey University. Urban poverty, penal welfare and health inequalities, which he co-authored with Dr Ottilie Stolte from the University of Waikato, is due out later this year.