Concerns raised about Police stats

Concerns have been raised by Women's Refuge about the drop in crime reported by NZ Police in the crime statistics for the year to 31 December 2012. Chief Executive Heather Henare said, "It is very hard for us to learn what is happening in the domestic and family violence sectors from the statistics released by the police yesterday."

"What we do know is the Police attend many domestic violence incidents that never end up recorded as an offence. We have long standing concerns that the threshold for recording an incident as an offence is too high and that there are cases when an act of domestic violence has not had an appropriate Police response."

Ms Henare also raised concerns about the increase in the use of Police Safety Orders (PSO), saying that although welcomed, "Women’s Refuge knows of incidents where PSO’s were used in cases that involved clear evidence of physical violence". Police Safety Orders are intended for use "where an investigation fails to establish full evidence of an offence". [i]

The New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse notes that Police data for recorded family violence should not be used to make inferences about trends in the incidence of family violence over time. International and local evidence suggests that only a small proportion of all family violence is reported to the police.[ii] For example, from a survey of a representative sample of New Zealand women, Fanslow & Robinson have reported that only 12.8% of women spoke to the police about violence they experienced. [iii]

Variable reporting practices also make it difficult to interpret data. It is difficult to establish the extent to which changes in reporting, recording and/or changes in the number of incidents contributes to the differences seen.

'Women’s Refuge has concerns with Police Stats', Press Release: Women's Refuge, 3 April 2013

'Patience wears thin in police force', Stuff, 15/4/13