Survey of victims reveals 1.5m crimes unreported

By LOUISA CLEAVE

More than 1.5 million crimes go unreported every year, mainly because victims think the offences are too trivial to call police.

Some politicians are concerned that the huge gap between police statistics and a national survey of crime victims may discredit official figures, says a law and order select committee report.

The survey estimates that people experienced 1,779,657 "victimisations" in 2001, compared with the 263,099 offences recorded by police.

The Ministry of Justice says the survey explores the "dark figure of crime" - offences that are unreported to police or reported but not recorded.

The poll of 5000 New Zealanders aged 15 and over found a minority (4 per cent) of people were victimised repeatedly and experienced the bulk of crime.

They were more likely to be the young, Maori, solo parents and those living on benefits.

The figures have changed little since the first victims survey, in 1996.

People were less likely to report sexual offences (only 12 per cent reported), violence by partners (18 per cent), threats (20 per cent), and robberies and thefts from homes (23 per cent).

But 91 per cent of people would tell police about vehicle thefts and burglaries (68 per cent reported), mainly because they hoped to get the property back and for insurance purposes.

The national survey of victims estimated the number of sexual interference/assault offences against women to be 68,509 in 2001 - compared with 563 offences recorded by police.

National, New Zealand First and United Future MPs on the committee believed one reason for the discrepancy between crime figures was that police staffing "is so low that people no longer have the confidence that when they report a crime it will be responded to".

"Some victims do not report crimes because they do not have insurance and perceive that their call will not be responded to, so see no advantage in ringing the police for assistance."

Half of those surveyed failed to inform police because of perceived triviality of the crime, and a further 18 per cent believed that police could have done little or nothing about the victimisation.

A further 11 per cent believed the matter would be dealt with by the parties themselves, and 9 per cent believed it was a personal or family matter.

Superintendent David Trappitt, the national manager of planning and policy, said police were concerned that 50 per cent of victims still felt some crimes were not worth reporting.

The number of people who felt police were too busy to deal with their complaint had dropped from 5 per cent in 1996 to 2.5 per cent in 2001.

Mr Trappitt said the decline was encouraging but he urged the public to report offences and said police took complaints seriously.

Victim Support chief executive Stephen Caldwell said reporting offences to police would have an impact because many people were subjected to repeat victimisation.

"If it's a domestic-related incident brought to the attention of authorities, steps are taken to keep [the victim] safer.

"If it's a property-type offence where you have been repeatedly victimised, then steps are taken to make sure that you are more secure," said Mr Caldwell.

"That whole process of reporting crime starts the process of putting steps in place to prevent it."