Young males most likely group to be apprehended by police
Younger age groups and males were those most likely to be apprehended by police in all offence categories, Statistics New Zealand said today. The median age for all apprehensions was 22 years, ranging from 19 years for dishonesty offences, to 27 years for violence offences. In most offence categories offending was shown to begin from around the age of 10 years, increasing rapidly to peak at around 17 years, and subsequently decreasing with advancing age.
Statistics New Zealand’s report, Patterns in police apprehensions in New Zealand 2005/06 to 2008/09, gives a picture of who is being apprehended, how they are being dealt with, and the seriousness of their offending. As with recorded crime, records of apprehensions reflect only those offences that are brought to the attention of police, and more specifically, those offences for which they actually make an apprehension.
“This report on police apprehensions in New Zealand will contribute to the ongoing debate on crime in New Zealand. It’s innovative, using a ‘seriousness scale’, which assigns weights to different offence categories,” Social Conditions business unit manager Conal Smith said.
Male apprehensions were generally for more serious offences than female apprehensions, particularly in the violence and dishonesty offence categories. Males were also far more likely to be apprehended for offences than females, with a range from 98 percent of all apprehensions for sexual offences being of males, to 74 percent of all apprehensions for dishonesty offences being of males.
‘Serious assaults’, ‘minor assaults’, ‘intimidations and threats’, ‘behaviour offences’, and ‘alcohol offences’ accounted for around half the 12 percent increase in total apprehensions from 2005/06 to 2008/09. Results also suggested that the average seriousness of offences for which there was an apprehension remained largely the same over the four year period.
The report also looks at how different offences were dealt with: warnings or cautions were issued in 13 percent of all apprehensions (for those 17 years of age and older) over the four years of the report. Generally, police were more likely to deal with less serious offences by using a warning or caution. For example, the warning/caution rate was 32 percent for minor assaults, compared with only 2 percent for grievous assaults.
More detailed data is in the full report, available on www.stats.govt.nz.
Cathryn Ashley-Jones
2 June 2010
Acting Government Statistician