This Statistics New Zealand report provides a picture of who is being apprehended, how they are being dealt with, and the seriousness of their offending. The report uses official New Zealand police apprehension statistics. The report presents trends in types of offences, the differences in resolution type (such as prosecution or warning) between each type of offence, and investigates the relationship between offence seriousness and resolution type. Age and gender are analysed in relation to the type of offence. The report also discusses the intensity of offences being committed, by whom, and how they are being dealt with. The report showed that when taking into account offence seriousness and volume, apprehensions for the violence category occupied the greatest proportion (38 percent) of all offence categories, with large increases in apprehensions for violence offences over the four years covered by the report. Indecent assault and sexual violation (which includes rape) were the two largest offence classes by volume for sexual offence apprehensions. Although complex, there was a relationship between offence seriousness and resolution type: the vast majority of low- to mid-seriousness offences had a warning/caution element to them. Thus it was evident in the report that the police take into account a host of aggravating and mitigating factors when determining resolution. The author notes that more in-depth studies could validate the patterns identified in the report, for example, analysis of resolution types by demographic group, analysis of offender histories with administrative data, and analysis of alternative measures of offence seriousness. Copy archived by National Library of New Zealand.

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