Violence as a public issue
Violent crime attracts more public attention in New Zealand than other forms of crime. Murders, assaults and rapes can dominate newspaper headlines, attract television news viewers and ignite debates about the need for harsher sentences for offenders and better support for victims of crime. However, violent crime was only 14% of all reported victimisations (people, organisations and properties that were victims of a criminal offence) in 2020, and murder and manslaughter made up less than 0.2% of all recorded violent offences between 1994 and 2014, and just 0.06% of all violent crime victimisations between 2015 and 2020.
Between 2007 and 2020 there were 1,005 homicide (murder and manslaughter) victims in New Zealand. This figure includes the 51 victims of the terror attacks in Christchurch in 2019. Leaving aside this anomalous event, the annual average of 68 homicide victims remained stable in this period.
Types of violent crime
Violent crime includes homicide (such as murder and manslaughter), kidnapping and abduction, robbery, assaults (grievous, serious or minor), intimidation and threats, and group assemblies (offences such as unlawful assembly, harassment and rioting). Much of the violent crime reported to the police relates to minor offences. Acts intended to cause injury were 85% of all reported crime victimisations in 2023. However, serious assaults resulting in injury were around 62% of all assault victimisations between 2015 and 2023.
Family violence, sexual abuse and child abuse usually occur behind closed doors and are often unreported. As a result, official figures reveal only a fraction of the true incidence of these crimes.
Family violence
The number of family disputes reported peaked in the early 1990s, dropped in the mid-1990s, then rose again at the end of the decade. In the early 21st century the number of family disputes reported grew steadily, with 69,729 family violence cases investigated by the police in 2007 and 118,910 in 2016. Approximately 40% of all homicides are family related.
The Family Violence Act 2018 was a new attempt to combat family violence. Perpetrators of family violence had often only been charged with common assault, which did not attract a heavy penalty. The new legislation introduced specific family violence crimes, and criminalised behaviours often associated with family violence. The act of strangulation and suffocation was made a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of seven years. Researchers had found that such behaviour is often a warning that more serious offending may occur in the future. During the first three years this legislation was in place, the police laid more than 3,500 charges of strangulation.
Violence against children
In the 2010s the Department of Child, Youth and Family (CYF) received around 150,000 notifications of suspected child abuse and neglect each year. About 60,000 of these cases required further action. In the year 2015/16, 2,953 children under 17 years of age were reported as having experienced physical abuse. Due to changed recording methods, this figure cannot be compared with previous data.
Between 2007 and 2020, 127 children under the age of 15 were victims of homicide. Those under five were most at risk, amounting to over three-quarters of all child homicides.
Kidnapping and abduction
In New Zealand law, kidnapping is the unlawful detention or carrying away of a person against his or her will. Abduction is carrying away a woman or girl for the purpose of marrying her or having sex with her without her consent. Kidnapping and abduction both carry a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.
These crimes were uncommon in New Zealand, with fewer than 100 a year until the late 1990s. However, more than 300 abductions and kidnappings were recorded annually between 2006 and 2009. The average between 2015 and 2023 was 412, but this figure is not comparable with earlier data.
Increases in violent crime
Rates of all forms of violent crime (based on both reports and convictions) have generally increased since the Second World War, although there have been fluctuations around this overall trend.
Violent crimes reported to the police increased from 640 per 100,000 people in 1985 to a peak of 1,562 in 1996. After that they decreased slightly before rising again. In 2008, nearly 1,400 violent crimes were reported per 100,000 people. Recent increases in reports of violent crime are related to a rise in recorded family violence. There is now lower tolerance of family violence, and training initiatives have increased police responsiveness to complaints of family violence.
Reported violent crime peaked in 2009 at 66,464 offences, then fell a little over the next five years. The police's new recording method, introduced in 2014, shows the number of violent crime victimisations increasing by 33% between 2015 and 2023.
International comparisons
In 2000 New Zealand’s rate of violent crime was slightly higher than Australia’s. There were almost identical rates for homicide, but New Zealand had higher rates for assault, while Australia’s sexual-assault rates were higher. International comparison of crime rates, including rates of violent crime, is difficult because countries record crime in different ways.
In 2004/5, New Zealand had the highest rate of physical assaults, threats and sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner of any member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Prison sentences
Prison sentences for violent offences are harsher than those for other crimes. The Criminal Justice Act 1985 made imprisonment virtually mandatory for violent offences punishable by at least five years’ imprisonment. Amendments to this legislation in 1987 and 1993 increased the length of both imprisonment and non-parole periods (the period during which an offender cannot apply for an early release from prison) for violent offences. Release conditions were tightened and the maximum penalty for sexual violation was extended from 14 years to 20. Average sentences for serious offences increased sharply between 1986 and 1996.
The Parole Act 2002 and the Sentencing Act 2002 created a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for murder committed under certain aggravating circumstances (including killing more than one person, killing during a home invasion, or using a high level of brutality), and extended the scope of preventive detention (indefinite imprisonment). Prison sentences increased; there were fewer early-parole releases and more recalls for parole violation. In the 2020s, lobby groups such as the Sensible Sentencing Trust continue to argue that more severe sentences are needed to deter violent crime and provide a form of justice for victims. Others argue for a more rehabilitative approach to offending.
The profile of criminal violence appears to have altered little in response to these changes in sentencing and parole. However, in 2010 the National-led government introduced a version of the American ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy, with stronger penalties for repeat violent and sexual offenders. Those with a third strike were now required to serve the maximum sentence applicable to the offence without the possibility of parole. In practice, however, the courts used a provision in the law to allow eligibility for parole in every third strike case.
In 2020 the Labour-led government repealed the three strikes policy, arguing that it had not led to a reduction in serious crime or functioned as an effective deterrent, and had restricted judges’ ability to take individual circumstances into account. The National-led government elected in 2023 passed legislation to reintroduce the three strikes regime in a modified form, with effect from June 2025.