New Crime Statistics - Counting the Victims behind the Crime

28 November 2014

A new Police data-set of crime statistics with far better and more detailed information about victims has been released for the first time today.

Superintendent Dave Trappitt from NZ Police says the Recorded Crime Victims Statistics (RCVS) published today on the Statistics NZ website show the first four months of data collected on victimisations.

“This new data-set reflects the importance that Police place on victims and aligns with our Prevention First strategy. It will provide a frequent and up-to-date picture of victims in our communities.

“The RCVS will provide both Police and the public with more information about victims than we have had before.”

The new data set gives demographics of victims including age, gender and ethnicity.

“Crucially it also shows the relationship between victims and offenders eg whether the offender was a partner, sibling, parent etc”.

“The relationship aspect of the RCVS provides a new level of information about family violence and is something that Police have been working on developing since 2009,” Superintendent Trappitt said.

“These statistics will provide new information about victims and ultimately a more complete picture of who is affected by crime in New Zealand. A victim can be an individual or an organisation such as a business,” Superintendent Trappitt said.

In developing this new data-set Police worked collaboratively with Statistics NZ, drawing on their expertise in managing data privacy and confidentiality.

In 2015 a partner data set, the Recorded Crime Offenders Statistics (RCOS), will also be launched which will complement the RCVS and will include crimes that do not have a clear victim such as drug offences.

Superintendent Trappitt said the new statistics address recommendations made by Statistics NZ in their review of justice statistics in 2009. They also align to the Government's stated intent that government departments are open and transparent, as well as bringing Police into line with the way other countries including the UK and Australia report their official statistics.

“The RCVS makes use of better technology for recording and reporting information about victims.”

Today’s release shows the first four months of RCVS data. There will be no release of data in December. However from 30 January 2015 the data-set will be updated on the last working day of each month.

Superintendent Trappitt said one of the major criticisms of the current twice-yearly crime statistics is that they don’t produce timely information and are often seen as stale by the time they are released.

“The RCVS and RCOS together will provide a more frequent, detailed and complete picture of crime than the current statistics.”

“We are continuing to work Stats NZ on functionality and enhancements to these new statistics.”

When both the RCVS and RCOS are operational and embedded, they will supersede the current twice-yearly crime statistics. The last release of the current crime statistics is likely to be April 2015.

You can access the RCVS on the Statistics NZ website here.

You can find a background document with more information about the RCVS here www.police.govt.nz/rcvs

ENDS

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