Statistics NZ Release Report on Police Apprehensions

Statistics New Zealand’s report, "Patterns in police apprehensions in New Zealand 2005/06 to 2008/09", has been released and provides a picture of who is being apprehended, how they are being dealt with, and the seriousness of their offending.
The report found that 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.

The report also looked at how different offences were dealt with: warnings or cautions were issued in 13 per cent 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 per cent for minor assaults, compared with only 2 per cent for grievous assaults.

For access to the full report, please visit: http://www.stats.govt.nz/Publications/SocialConditions/patterns-in-polic...