NCJ Number
199972
Date Published
December 2002
Length
216 pages
Annotation
This document discusses trends in prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing between 1992 and 2001 in New Zealand.
Abstract
Trends in the number of 14 and 16 year-olds apprehended by the police, and in offending by young people that resulted in an appearance in court are also examined. A special topic investigated was the use of home detention in 2001. Data were extracted from the Law Enforcement System. The total number of criminal prosecutions peaked in 1996 at nearly 277,000 charges, and has generally decreased since then. A large part of the decrease in prosecutions in 1997 was attributable to the offense of failing to register a dog under the Dog Control Act 1996 becoming an infringement offense. The proportion of all prosecutions resulting in a conviction has generally shown a slowly decreasing trend over the decade. There were significant changes to the sentencing regime in New Zealand as of June 30, 2001. In proportional terms the overall use of the various types of sentences available to the courts did not change very much in the 10-year period. There has been a slowly increasing trend in the proportion of cases in which the defendant was convicted and discharged under section 20 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985. Most 14 to 16 year-olds that are apprehended for criminal offending are dealt with by means other than formal prosecution in court. There has been an increasing trend in the number of cases involving young people that are dealt with in formal court proceedings, although in recent years the increase has been relatively small. There were 5,807 cases in 2001 where a court imposed a prison sentence of 2 years or less, and information was recorded in the data on whether leave to apply for home detention was granted. For 36 percent of these cases, leave to apply for home detention was granted by the court. Home detention was used to a greater extent in 2001 than it was in 2000. 10 figures, 156 tables, 4 appendices, 11 references