Data on unique offenders and unique crime victims released

New Zealand Police and Statistics New Zealand began releasing statistics about unique offenders and unique crime victims on 31 July 2015.

The data complements the existing Recorded Crime Offender Statistics (RCOS) and Recorded Crime Victims Statistics (RCVS).

Statistics NZ defines the unique offender population as the "measure that counts a person once in a given reference period regardless of how many times they may have been dealt with by police, in court or non-court action. Offenders are recorded under their most serious offence."

The unique crime victims population is defined as the "measure that counts a person/organisation once in a given 12 month reference period for each ANZSOC Division [Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification] in which they are recorded as being a victim of an offence, regardless of how many times they may have been victimised."

The data tables provide a frequency count of the number of proceedings or victimisations against offenders or victims during the previous year, broken down by:

• Police boundary 
• Demographic variables, such as age, sex and ethnicity
• Offence type
• Relationship of offender to victim
• Method of proceeding (crime offender statistics)
• Outcome of investigation (crime victims statistics)

The statistics will be updated on the last working day of each month for the preceding 12 month period.

At present, information on the relationship between the victim and offender is not adequately recorded for all crimes. For example, in the Recorded Crime Victims Statistics, in 55% of assault offences and 80% of sexual assault offences, the relationship between the victim and offender was inadequately described or not identified. Over all of the offences included in the Recorded Crime Victims Statistics data set, 31% had the relationship between the victim and offender adequately defined.

 The release of the unique offender and unique victims of crime data continues Statistics New Zealand's work to release crime and justice sector statistics based on recommendations in Review of crime and criminal justice statistics 2009. Data are Tier 1 official statistics and have been confidentialised using random rounding to base 3 to protect individuals' information. 

Media

Victims likely to know attackers, Wairarapa Times-Age, 24.08.2015

68pc of victims know attacker, Bay of Plenty Times, 21.08.2015

Most violence is committed by someone you know - report, NZ Herald, 21.08.2015

Editorial: Home abuse victims need our support, Hawke's Bay Today, 18.08.2015

Home violence going unreported, say police, Hawke's Bay Today, 18.08.2015

Time to get tough on home violence, The Northern Advocate, 17.08.2015