The Ministry of Justice surveyed 7100 people over their crime experiences in a year. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
New crime figures show a significant increase in vehicle theft and growing levels of people falling victim to online fraud.
Figures are out today for the Ministry of Justice's sixth annual crime and victimisation survey which canvassed over 7100 people's experience of crime between October 2022 to November 2023.
The survey showed vehicle theft increasing by 47 percent - with 19,000 more reported instances in 2023 than the previous year.
Rebecca Parish of the Ministry of Justice said the increase was in line with international trends which also mirrored growing occurrences of fraud and cyber crime.
"Last year we reported a major increase in the rate of people victimised by fraud. This trend continued in 2023, with 10 percent of New Zealanders experiencing fraud in the last 12 months.
"This makes it the most common offence in New Zealand."
Two-thirds of fraud was identified by unauthorised bank transactions while scam online purchases accounted for 20 percent.
Online scams are on the rise, people reported. Photo: 123RF
The rise fraud and deception was also attributed to growing numbers of Asian adults targeted by crime.
Nearly 30 percent experienced at least one instance of crime last year, up six percent from when the survey began in 2018.
The proportion of Māori adults impacted by crime had steadily dropped over the last six years, down to 34 percent in the last year.
That figure remained higher than the overall average of people who experience at least one instance of crime with young people, disabled people and members of the LGBT+ community also experiencing higher than average levels of victimisation.
Police said the proportion of the population impacted by crime had remained comparatively steady over the last six years at 32 percent in 2023, up only one percent on the previous year.
They said nearly two-thirds of people report high levels of trust in the police and the levels of reporting crime were continuing to grow.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said he welcomed the report's insights.
"The survey shows that overall, high trust and confidence in police remains strong at 67 percent and that the public consistently feel that police will treat them professionally (83 percent).
"That is a tribute to how our staff go about their roles every day, working closely with communities to keep them safe.
"Levels of incident reporting to police continue to improve, especially in areas like interpersonal violence. We have invested heavily over the last few years to make reporting easier, and we are pleased that is having a positive effect.
"Reporting of crime helps police build a clearer picture of what is happening in our communities and deploy to prevent crime and reassure our communities."
But Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the overall levels of crime detailed in the survey were "shameful" and more needed to be done to combat growing numbers of people who felt unsafe in their communities and homes.
"There were 185,000 New Zealanders who experienced 449,000 incidents of violent crime, including physical and sexual assault, and robbery. "
"Sadly, the survey found more New Zealanders felt unsafe than the year prior, even if they weren't a victim of a crime," Goldsmith said.
"This is unacceptable. That's why this government backs the police to do their job more effectively and will ensure there are serious consequences for crime."
He said the recently announced sentencing reform package would back up police work with the goal of reducing the number of victims of violent crime by 20,000 and a 15 percent reduction in serious repeat youth offending by 2029.
"We're also backing police to go after criminal gangs, restoring Three Strikes legislation, getting more officers on the beat, establishing military-style academies and a new Young Serious Offender declaration, and speeding up court processes.
"This government will not sit by and let these figures get worse. We're taking action and will ensure all Kiwis feel safe in their communities."
Fraud
The proportion of people who had experienced fraud leapt from 6.2 percent to 10 percent from 2021 to 2022 and continued to grow into last year.
In 2023 there were 189,000 more victims of fraud than in 2021.
In 2023, 437,000 people were victimised by fraud and deception which accounted for 29 percent of all crime incidents last year - more than twice as much as assault and robbery (14 percent) and harassment and threatening behaviour (12 percent).
Eighty-six percent of frauds occurred online - which included text message and emails - while telephone scams made up only 2 percent of fraud in 2023.
People showed reluctance to report scams with only 11 percent reported to police while just under two thirds were reported to the victim's bank.
Two thirds of scams were detected only when unauthorised transactions became apparent to the victims or their banks. Researchers said the effect showed neither victims nor banks were aware of how a person's banking details had been accessed.
Researchers noted Netsafe's reporting of a record breaking $35 mil lost to scammers in the year ending 2022, 25 percent up on the previous year.
Vehicle theft
The number of vehicle thefts increased from 30,000 in 2021 to 68,000 in 2023.
While increased levels were reported across an array of households, those with young adults aged between 15 and 25 years old saw three times as many instances of vehicle theft as in 2018.
Cars parked on streets or roads were most likely to be stolen while only ten percent were stolen from garages, carports or public car parks.
Researchers said the trend was aligned with increases in the UK, US and Australia but (as of 2020) New Zealand had the highest rate of vehicle theft world wide.
Unsafe
The proportion of people who reported feeling unsafe had increased by nearly 60 percent since 2018 with fifteen percent of respondents rating how safe they felt as 6 or less out of 10.
The number of people who said they felt completely safe had decreased from 30 percent in 2018 to less than a quarter of people in 2023.
Researchers said increases of the numbers who did not feel safe were reflected in people who reported being victims of crime as well as non victims.
They said media coverage of events such as smash and grab ram raids as well as discrimination against certain groups could be contributing to the reduction of people's perception of their safety.
Just under a third of Chinese people reported feeling unsafe in the survey - an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2018 - while the proportion of Indian adults as well as adult's living in the Waikato region who reported feeling unsafe had nearly doubled since the survey began.
Discrimination
Asian adults experienced an increase in theft, vehicle offences, damage offences and interpersonal violence as well as being increasingly targeted by fraud.
Researchers cited other studies and observations of pandemic-related discrimination including a police study that showed more than a third of all hate-motivated crimes were targeted towards Asian people.
Family offences
The proportion of adults experiencing family offences had steadily decreased over the the last six years driven by a 56 percent drop in offences by family members that are not intimate partners.
The study showed adults who identified as LGBT+, separated adults and single parents saw the largest decreases in family offences but instances of sexual assault by family members had held steady since 2018.
Despite the decrease in family offences, the proportion of victims who reported at least one family offence to police rose by 25 percent over the last six years.
There was also a 28 percent increase in victims of family offences or controlling behaviours who sought help from - or were contacted by - support organisations or services.
The researchers noted that service providers had not observed a decrease in family offence numbers. They said steady numbers of repeated offending by intimate partners were indicative of controlling and violent relationships where the severity and reoccurrence of violence could actually be increasing.