A fatal beating, a drive-by shooting, two fatal knife attacks and last week's discovery of the remains of a man who had been missing for months go far beyond the traditional dysfunctional family formula.
Perhaps this year's deaths are aberration. Certainly that level of violence is not unique to Kaitaia.
There was another murder in South Auckland last weekend (which was beaten to TV One's headlines by a days-old police shooting in America).
But Kaitaia has the chance, politicians willing, to do something about it.
Politicians have had countless opportunities to fix this, but remain as bereft of ideas as they have always been.
Bereft of ideas, and of the courage to do what needs to be done. Perhaps Kaitaia can now lead the way in changing their response.
The best the current government has been able to come up with is to add a couple of new offences to the Criminal Justice Act - strangling and assaulting a family member - and to promise harsher penalties.
(It is not actually within the government's purview to promise tougher penalties. That's up to judges. Parliament has made dealing in meth punishable by life imprisonment, but we still see judges handing out home detention).
Tougher penalties aren't going to be much of a deterrent.
A violent man who attacks his partner/child/a total stranger who offends him isn't going to rationally consider the potential consequences before he lashes out with his fists, or whatever weapon comes to hand.
Kaitaia's Senior Sergeant Geoff Ryan has said that the town cannot arrest itself out of its violence problem.
And he's right. It is time for a whole new approach.
That's where Kaitaia, or more properly Te Hiku, comes in.
Three years ago then Minister for Social Development Paula Bennett offered Te Hiku - basically what used to be the old Mangonui County and North Hokianga - what she called a blank sheet of paper.
She invited the community to decide how the government's social welfare budget should be spent for best effect.
That was the boldest, most innovative offer ever made by a politician in this country, and it's time to take her up on it.
Make it Happen Te Hiku hasn't really happened at all, although it hasn't died completely. And while Ms Bennett no longer has the Social Development portfolio, it is time to call for her support as a member of the government's Cabinet in turbo charging it.
If the government wants to effectively address violence in Kaitaia, it must acknowledge the fundamental problem of unemployment.
Men, in particular, who have nothing to do all day but indulge in drugs and alcohol, look for ways to fund those addictions and brood, will always have an unacceptable propensity for violence.
The answer is to put them to work.
The government could, if it wished to do so, launch a pilot in Te Hiku, a small, troubled community that is well defined geographically and socially, and since 2013 politically.
What it must do within that community is put an end to 'free' social welfare benefits.
Every able-bodied adult who is capable of working must be put to work.
Those who don't want to work should not be compelled to do so. They just won't receive an income.
Those who don't want to live in a community where work is the norm will be free to leave.
Those who stay should understand that if they want a benefit they will have to front up, somewhere, five days a week to earn their living.
This is not beneficiary bashing. This will be very much to the beneficiary's advantage.
Benefits will need to increase significantly, to represent a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
The beneficiary's life will improve markedly - he will have more money, his life will have the structure, meaning and dignity that are so often absent under the current regime.
Once they are working they and their families must be encouraged to adopt the other routines that mainstream society considers normal.
Basic stuff, like regular meal times, working during the day and sleeping at night, sending the kids to school. Everyone will stand to gain.
Sure, there will be costs, in terms of benefits and providing the means by which these people can be put to work.
The Far North District Council, and perhaps the regional council, will clearly have a major role to play, and will need taxpayer funding.
There will also be savings, perhaps in fewer benefits, certainly in social terms.
If a genuine reduction in violence can be achieved, everyone wins, not least the children who, as things are now, can be all but guaranteed to grow up and follow in the footsteps of those who are setting the worst possible example.
This newspaper has no idea how much a pilot like this might cost, but it won't be beyond the government's means. It won't be money that's the sticking point.
It will be political will that is lacking. Goodness (and Winston Peters) knows that there is plenty of work to be done in Te Hiku, and plenty of people to do that work.
Bringing the two together demands political leadership and a genuine desire to do something about a community that is in danger of completely falling apart.
Of course the chances of this happening are probably on a par with Te Hiku Community Board achieving peace in Syria, but the government should be given the opportunity to decline the opportunity to be innovative.
If it does decline then we will be in no doubt that it really doesn't give a fat rat's about Te Hiku, or any other small community that is cracking under the pressure of two generations of unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and family dysfunction.
At least then we will know where we stand.
Paula Bennett had a clear vision three years ago. The fact that she offered Te Hiku the chance to 'make it happen' suggests that she had at least a modicum of support in Cabinet.
Hopefully that support still exists, and hopefully Ms Bennett will use her undoubted political skill, vision and compassion to persuade her colleagues that this is a much better answer than sending violent men to jail for longer after the event.
This newspaper has said before that governments don't actually fix anything.
The best that can be expected is that they will create an environment that enables us to make life better. That certainly applies here.
It is time for the politicians who profess to have our best interests at heart to see beyond the same old responses that have never worked and never will.
Perhaps they can be persuaded to give Te Hiku one year to prove that the scourge of family violence can be defeated.
And in one year's time, if there has been no improvement, this newspaper will do what few politicians have ever done - publicly concede that it was wrong.
