By Laura Frykberg
A criminologist says the falling crime rate is not unique to New Zealand and is the result of changing demographics.
The statistics show an almost 50 percent decrease in the number of murders over the past year, with crime in Canterbury dropping to a record low after the February earthquake.
Recorded crime has dropped 5.8 percent to its lowest level in six years – a decrease Police Minister Judith Collins attributes to police and Government agencies.
“It’s pleasing to see that the downward trend in crime that we saw in the last calendar year is continuing,” she said. “So a really big congratulations to police and other partner agencies like Corrections.”
But a Victoria University criminology professor says the decrease is actually because of the country’s ageing population.
“That cohort of 15 to 20-year-old men are the most criminogenic group of any society and if you have far fewer of them in your population then that’s going to have an impact on crime rates,” Professor John Pratt says.
Crime rates have dropped across all districts, but by far the biggest drop is in Canterbury – down 14.6 percent.
“Cantabrians I think have come together and even criminals have taken that on board. There has been a reduction in thefts and property crime, so that’s a good result,” says Deputy Police Commissioner Viv Rickard.
Property damage, robberies and drug offences are all significantly down.
But the number of sexual assaults is up.
Professor Pratt says over the last 20 years the western world has seen a similar trend in falling crime rates – partly due to more people investing in higher levels of security.
“We’ve got so much more fool-proof security systems on our cars, in our homes and don’t carry so much money around with us these days.”
But despite this, over 20,000 vehicles were recorded as stolen – something Ms Collins says police are hoping to reduce.
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