Christopher Luxon, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers speak to the media
29.5% of adults in New Zealand experience a crime in 2024, according to the latest NZ Crime and Victims Survey. This rate has been steady since the survey started in 2018
The number of victims of violent crime rose last year compared to 2023, but the trend started to decline in the latter half of the year
The number of victims of a family offence where the offender is not an intimate partner doubled, from 19,000 in 2023 to 40,000 in 2024
Overall crime remains steady but the number of victims of violent crime rose last year, despite Government policies targeting this and a declining trend in the latter half of the year.
That’s according to the latest NZ Crime and Victims survey, released today, which also showed a significant increase in victims of family violence where the offender was not an intimate partner.
The survey is considered a more accurate picture of crime because it includes unreported incidents (only 26% of crime is reported to police), although it excludes crimes against businesses.
The latest survey results show 29.5% of adults experienced a crime in 2024, which is consistent with survey findings every year since it started in 2018.
Violent crime (physical or sexual assault, or robbery) has remained relatively steady since 2018, according to the NZ Crime and Victims Survey
It comes as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon trumpeted a drop in violent crime earlier this week - although referencing a different set of data - along with an increase in police officers on the streets and a higher number of prisoners.
Luxon has set a target to reduce the number of victims of violent crime (physical or sexual assault, or robbery) by 20,000 by 2029, using the survey result of 185,000 such victims in 2023 as a baseline figure.
The 2024 survey showed the number of victims rising to 191,000 (a 3% annual increase), although the rate of victimisation was steady on a per-capita basis (4.4% of adults in 2024, up from 4.3% in 2023).
The increase seems to have been driven by a doubling of the number of family offences where the offender was not an intimate partner: 40,000 victims in 2024, compared to 19,000 in 2023.
The latest trend in violent crime, however, is declining: there were 24,000 fewer victims in the year to October 2024 than in the year to June 2024.
Quarterly reporting on this statistic is new, so the Government can have regular updates on how it is tracking towards its target.
Rate of crime: steady
The survey is based on thousands of interviews with New Zealanders aged 15 and older.
Each year since 2018, it has found the proportion of adults experiencing crime oscillating between 29% and 31.5%.
Even though 70.5% had a crime-free year in 2024, only 24% said they felt completely safe, similar to 2023’s result but much lower than previous years when it has been a shade under 30%.
The NZ Crime and Victims Survey for 2024 showed a steady rate of crime since the survey started in 2018. Source: NZCVS
There has been a substantial increase in the proportion of sexual assaults reported to police (24% of all incidents were reported in 2024, up from 6% in 2018), although this does not necessarily indicate that this type of criminal offending is on the rise.
“In the case of sexual assault, rates of sexual assault remain broadly steady but more victims are reporting those assaults,” Ministry of Justice general manager Rebecca Parish said in a statement.
“We are working to understand what is driving these findings. This will be further explored in the NZCVS Key Stories report which will be published at the end of May. This will contain further analysis and context for some of the trends in this report.”
There’s been a decline in burglaries (9% of households experienced a burglary in 2024, down from 12% in 2018), driving a drop in the rate of household offences over the same period, from 33 to 26 incidents per 100 households.
The 2024 survey reinforced the findings of previous years: that members of the LGBTIQ+ community and those aged 20 to 24 were more likely to be crime victims, while those aged over 65 or living in rural areas were more likely to be crime-free.
Māori continued to disproportionately be victims of crime, although less so in 2024, when 33.7% of Māori experienced a crime, compared to the average of 29.5%, than in previous years.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers(left), Mark Mitchell and Paul Goldsmith (right) at a press conference in Manukau. Photo / Dean Purcell
Government hails lower violent crime
On Monday, Luxon was joined by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Police Commissioner Richard Chambers to hail a fall in violent crime.
“After year-on-year increases in violent crime since 2018, it is encouraging to see a reversal of this rise with a 2% [decline] in the numbers for 2024,” Mitchell said, referring to a social media post.
“It is especially encouraging when you consider that violent crime increased by 51% between 2018 and 2023.”
The statistics in the social media post are not from the survey - which includes unreported crime - but from police victimisation statistics. Police record a victimisation regardless of whether it proceeds to an investigation, prosecution or conviction.
The numbers included reports to police of abduction and kidnapping, robbery, sexual assault, blackmail and extortion, common assault, and serious assault.
Goldsmith referred to the declining trend in the number of victims of violent crime in the survey results released today.
“These results are extremely promising, but we expect the data to remain volatile before a longer-term trend emerges. There’s still more work to do.”
Luxon talked about the reduction in the number of ram raids, although he did not say that these have been declining since August 2022, well before his party took office.
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Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
