This is the eighth State of the Nation report from The Salvation Army. Like its predecessors it is written to encourage public debate around New Zealand’s social progress. The Salvation Army believes such a debate is vital, in part to balance a political agenda that can be too influenced by economic concerns, and to advance an alternative debate around social inclusion and social justice. The indicators offered in this report present a mixed and at times difficult to explain picture of what is happening in New Zealand society today. From the data available it appears that rates of youth offending and teenage pregnancy
have fallen substantially indicating perhaps something of a cultural change - that attitudes and behaviours are changing at a broad societal level. Indicators around child abuse and violence to children are somewhat contradictory with
reported child abuse rates falling while recorded violence against children rising. While infant mortality rates appear to have risen sharply this might be explained by a lapse in reporting.(from the Introduction). See also the NZFVC news item, "Are falling crime rates real?" focusing on that section of this report - follow the second link. Record #4624