More violent crime, fewer prosecutions, fewer convictions, fewer in prison

Stats NZ has just published the sentencing data for 2022, which has allowed me to compare it to the Police data on recorded offending. It tells a massive story about a soft on crime approach that has seen violent offending soar, yet prosecutions, convictions and imprisonments fall.

Now comparing offending data to sentencing data is imperfect as people do not always get prosecuted or convicted in the same year as they’re offending. But the trends are so clear and over so many years, that it doesn’t change the conclusion that there is more violent crime, and less consequences for those offending.

Also note that the some numbers are for offences, and some for people. Some people commit multiple offences. But what is important is the change in each of them since 2017.

Note that the category Acts intended to cause injury excludes homicide type offences. But they are very few compared to overall violent acts.

Here’s how things have changed since 2017:

• Violent offending has increased 42%
• Prosecutions for violent offending has declined 13%
• Convictions for violent offending has declined 18%
• The number of people sent to prison for violent offending has declined 36%

This is what happens when the Government tells the entire justice sector they want to reduce the prison population by 30%. Instead of reducing crime (which is hard), they have reduced prosecutions, convictions and imprisonments.