Youth offending - apprehensions
Note: The data and text for this section is sourced in whole or in part from the following report: Ministry of Social Development (2008), Children and Young People: Indicators of Wellbeing in New Zealand 2008. Wellington: Ministry of Social Development.
Definition
The number of Police apprehensions involving young people aged 14 to 16 (viewed by the justice system as minors) and 17 to 24 (viewed as adults) for all offences except non-imprisonable traffic offences.
Note: An apprehension means that a person is recorded as having been dealt with by the Police in some manner to resolve an alleged offence. Apprehensions represent the number of alleged offences but not the number of offenders, as people who are apprehended for more than one offence are counted once for each offence. For example, one offender who is apprehended for five burglaries would be counted as five apprehensions.
Being apprehended in relation to an offence is not the same as being charged with or convicted of the offence.
Relevance
The involvement of young people in offending has a negative impact on their wellbeing and often on that of their peers, siblings and other whānau as well. Offending by young people may also indicate exposure to a range of other risky behaviours or to the risk of violence. It discourages civic engagement and inhibits young people from engaging positively with their communities.
Non-imprisonable traffic offences (e.g. speeding, or breaching license conditions) are excluded from this indicator as they do not tend to be clustered with other negative outcomes or risk behaviours in the same way as other offences. Non-imprisonable traffic offences are also recorded separately and subject to a different penalty process (an infringement notice regime).
Current levels and trend
In 2006 there were 30,451 Police apprehensions of 14 to 16 year olds for non-traffic offences, a rate of 1,570 apprehensions per 10,000 14 to 16 year olds.(1) Among 17 to 24 year olds, there were 77,837 apprehensions, representing a rate of 1,640 per 10,000 young people of this age group.
As noted, apprehensions statistics count the number of alleged offences, not the number of offenders, so these apprehension rate figures are not offender rates, although they do control for population size.
The non-traffic apprehension rate for 14 to 16 year olds rose sharply in the early 1990s to a high of 1,908 per 10,000 in 1997. After remaining reasonably steady until 2003, it dropped markedly to 1,636 in 2004 and has fallen more slowly since then. The number and rate of violent offences rose 9 percent and 7 percent respectively from 2005 to 2006.
Among 17 to 24 year olds, the non-traffic apprehension rate was steady through the late 1990s and early 2000s, at roughly 2 percentage points (200/10,000) below the rate for younger youth. It dipped to a low of 1,509 per 10,000 population in 2005 before rising again to overtake the rate for 14 to 16 year olds in 2006.
Rate per 10,000 population of non-traffic apprehensions of young people aged 14 to 16 and 17 to 24, 1997 to 2006
Source: Derived by the Ministry of Youth Development from New Zealand Police data.
Types of offence
Among 14 to 16 year olds, nearly half (47.5 percent) of all apprehensions in 2006 were for dishonesty offences (e.g. burglary, theft, fraud, car conversion).
A further 21.4 percent were for offences involving property damage or abuse. 15.3 percent of apprehensions were for violence offences and 12.5 percent were for drugs/antisocial offences.
| Number | Proportion (%) of all non-traffic offences | |
|---|---|---|
| Violence | 4,655 | 15.3% |
| Sexual | 188 | 0.6% |
| Drugs and antisocial | 3,815 | 12.5% |
| Dishonesty | 14,450 | 47.5% |
| Property damage | 4,441 | 14.6% |
| Property abuse | 2,058 | 6.8% |
| Administrative | 844 | 2.8% |
| Total offences | 30,451 | 100.0% |
Source: New Zealand Police.
Among 17 to 24 year olds, dishonesty offences and drugs/antisocial offences each accounted for about thirty percent of all apprehensions.
Just under 15 percent of all apprehensions (14.9 percent) were for offences relating to property damage and abuse, and just over 17 percent were for violence offences.
| Number | Proportion (%) of all non-traffic offences | |
|---|---|---|
| Violence | 13,324 | 17.1% |
| Sexual | 452 | 0.6% |
| Drugs and antisocial | 23,427 | 30.1% |
| Dishonesty | 23,875 | 30.7% |
| Property damage | 6,943 | 8.9% |
| Property abuse | 4,665 | 6.0% |
| Administrative | 5,151 | 6.6% |
| Total offences | 77,837 | 100.0% |
Source: New Zealand Police.
Notes
1. All rates are calculated using Statistics New Zealand’s population estimates at 30 June as a base (which are based on 2006 Census counts and then adjusted for Census undercounts), to allow the creation of comparable time-series data. These differ from the rates presented in Chong, J. (2007), Youth Justice Statistics in New Zealand: 1992 to 2006 (Wellington: Ministry of Justice), which were calculated using population estimates based on the 2001 Census.
