Dear Professor Moon,

You are quoted in the NZ Herald on 4/6/11 thus:

It was harmful to stereotype Maori when there was no difference between Maori and Pakeha parents in terms of violence. It would have been more useful to work on the problems of drugs and alcohol abuse in families instead, he said.

I would argue that there is an ABSOLUTE difference between Maori and Pakeha parents in terms of violence:

• Ngai Tahu Magazine – Te Karaka (Moana Tapu):

The most unfortunate fact is that Maori top the statistics when it comes to the incidence and social cost of domestic violence, in what has been described as a 'culture of violence'.

• Policy, Strategy and Research Group, Department of Corrections, September 2007

Māori are disproportionately represented in criminal justice statistics to an alarming degree.

• Ethnic Identity and Intimate Partner Violence in a New Zealand Birth Cohort - Ministry of Social Development 2008

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an issue of growing concern in New Zealand, with particular concerns being raised about the over-representation of Māori in surveys of IPV.

Three national crime surveys have been undertaken in New Zealand. The objective of this survey series was to ascertain the level of victimisation occurring in New Zealand, as the vast majority of incidents involving IPV are not reported to the New Zealand Police (New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse 2007). The first survey was undertaken in 1996, and the subsequent studies conducted in 2001 and 2006 each involved refinements to the respective survey’s methodological design. However, independent of these changes, a clear and consistent pattern of Māori being over-represented in IPV emerges.
In the first study, the lifetime prevalence rate of Māori women experiencing IPV was 26.9% compared with a rate of 14.6% for New Zealand European women (Young et al. 1997). The rates were 11.9% for Māori males and 6.8% for New Zealand European males. The second national crime survey indicated that 49.3% of Māori women and 22.2% of New Zealand European women had experienced IPV (Morris et al. 2003). The lifetime prevalence rate for Māori males was 27.5% and the corresponding rate for New Zealand European males 18.4%. The most recent contribution to this series used the term “confrontational offences” (mainly assaults and threats) and differentiated types of offending by the degree of intimacy between the respondent and offender (Mayhew and Reilly 2007). The results indicate an uneven distribution of vulnerability between ethnic groups, with Māori experiencing more than 50% higher than the average victimisation risk for offending by partners.
This pattern of Māori disproportionately represented in IPV is also observable from information derived from alternative sources. For example, although Māori make up only 15% of the New Zealand population, 50% of those sentenced for the offence “male assaults female” were Māori men (Doone 2000). In addition, it has been estimated that close to 50% of Women’s Refuge clientele are Māori women and children (New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse 2007). Other research reporting specifically on ethnic group differences in exposure to IPV or related trauma appears to corroborate the finding that both Māori men and women are at an inordinate risk of experiencing IPV when compared to other sub-groups of the population classified by ethnicity (Kazantzis et al. 2000, Koziol-Mclain et al. 2004, Flett et al. 2004, Hirini et al. 2005, Koziol-Mclain et al. 2007, Lievore et al. 2007).
• Official Information Act Data:
Over half (54% in 2009) of all convictions for violent offences against children are committed by Maori, 24% by European/Pakeha and 19% by Pacific Islanders. On these statistics, Asian families are significantly under represented. That there is a particular violence problem within the Maori culture is not a new finding and has been commented upon for more than a generation. But these statistics suggest that it is not getting better – it is getting worse and especially for Maori children.
• Maori Youth Offending: Paper Addressing Some Introductory Issues By His Honour Judge A J Becroft, Principal Youth Court Judge

Māori youth offenders make up around 50% of all youth offenders but in some Youth Courts the figure is as high as 80% or 90% - despite Māori encompassing only about a quarter of the New Zealand population under 17 years of age.2 This situation is deeply concerning to everyone involved in youth justice.

I have many other examples, however I would argue that your premise (assuming you have been reported correctly) is fundamentally false, although I am happy for you to provide me with literature that demonstrates that :there was no difference between Maori and Pakeha parents in terms of violence”.

Kind Regards,

Steve Taylor | B. Couns., B. Alc. D.S. | Cert. Clinical Supervision | Cert. Supervisory Management
Director 24-7 Ltd

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