PART 7: OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Crime and deviance
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: -
Method: Literature review
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Crime and deviance
Author(s): Newbold, Greg
Completed: YES
Availability: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-558232-2
Description: Since the last comprehensive survey of crime was attempted in 1968, the face of offending in New Zealand has changed dramatically. Reported violence has rocketed, illegal drug use has become epidemic, and white collar crime has emerged as an issue of serious concern. This book traces the major changes which have occurred in New Zealand, not only in crime itself, but in patterns of behaviour (such as homosexuality and gang membership) which, although not illegal, are still seen by society as deviant. Without knowing a community's economic and social dynamics, its patterns of crime and deviance cannot be understood. In following the altered profiles of crime and deviance in this country, Greg Newbold makes close reference to the other social, economic, and political changes of the past three decades.
Keywords: alcohol, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, drugs, enforcement, ethnic issues, hate crimes, Maori, offences, offenders, police, sexual abuse, violent crime, white-collar crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Crime seriousness
RESEARCH
Done by: Authors
Funded by: -
Method: Quantitative study
Status: [Completed]
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Judged seriousness of crime in New Zealand
Author(s): Davis, Stephen A.B. and Simon Kemp
Completed: YES, 1994
Availability: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, December 1994; 27(3):250-63
Description: One hundred and fifteen Christchurch residents judged the seriousness of 25 crimes, identified either by labels or vignettes, using the method of magnitude estimation. Judgements of the labels and vignettes were highly correlated, and overall the results suggested a social consensus on the relative seriousness of the crimes. The median estimates were highly correlated with the average sentences imposed by New Zealand courts and moderately correlated with the maximum sentences prescribed by legislation and police clearance priorities.
Keywords: attitudes, police, punishment, sentencing, seriousness
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Criminal careers
RESEARCH
Done by: Ministry of Justice
Funded by: Ministry of Justice
Method: Quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS, expected completion date December 1997
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Criminal careers of New Zealand offenders (working title)
Author(s): Lash, Barb and Sue Triggs
Completed: NO, planned completion date December 1997
Availability: Ministry of Justice publication
Description: The criminal careers of convicted offenders will be examined. Analysis will include the standard measures of criminal careers (e.g. age of first conviction, peak age of conviction, career length and offending frequency, offence specialisation) as well as recidivism and sentencing effectiveness.
Keywords: crime statistics, criminal behaviour, criminal careers, offenders, prosecution, recidivism, sentencing, sentencing effectiveness
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Criminal records disposal
RESEARCH
Done by: Movement for Alternatives to Prison
Funded by: Movement for Alternatives to Prison
Method: Literature review
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: On completion of sentence
Author(s): Movement for Alternatives to Prison
Completed: YES
Availability: Send S.A.E. to Movement for Alternatives to Prison, P O Box 77-039, Mt Albert, AUCKLAND.
Description: This paper was prepared for M.A.P. It contains eight proposals for changes to legislation dealing with criminal records (which differ from changes proposed in 1983 and 1989). Discussion of Canadian and N.S.W. legislation is included.
Keywords: criminal records, legislation impacts
Notes: An earlier publication from the Law Reform Division, Department of Justice was Living down a criminal record: problems and proposals: a discussion paper, 1985.
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Dangerousness
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: Self-funded except for small grant from Victoria University Internal Grants Committee
Method: History
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Dangerous, inadequate, invisible, out: episodes in the criminological career of habitual criminals
Author(s): Pratt, J. and M. Dickson
Completed: YES
Availability: To be published in Theoretical Criminology, 1997.
Description: A history of changing perception and ways of seeing habitual criminals.
Keywords: fear of crime, offences, offenders, prison inmates, property offences, sentence administration, sentencing, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Dangerousness in historical context
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES
Availability: University of Sydney Criminology Conference Report, June 1995
Description: [Not provided]
Keywords: fear of crime, offences, offenders, sentence administration, sentencing, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Reflections on recent trends towards the punishment of persistence
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES
Availability: To be published in Crime, Law and Social Change, 1996 or 1997.
Description: An analysis and explanation of the current trend towards punishing offenders for their persistence in crime.
Keywords: fear of crime, forecasting and modelling, media, offences, offenders, prisons, recidivism, sentence administration, sentencing, violent crime, youth
Notes:
Title: Dangerousness, risk and technologies of power
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES
Availability: Australia and New Zealand Criminology, March 1995
Description: Examines history of dangerous offender legislation and deals with some of the issues that this approach reveals and problematises.
Keywords: crime statistics, criminal behaviour, fear of crime, forecasting and modelling, prison inmates, prisons, property offences, recidivism, sentence administration, sentencing, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Governing the dangerous: a history of dangerous offender legislation
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES, June 1991
Availability: Will be published by Federation Press.
Description: To explain changes in the way in which 'dangerousness' has been conceptualised in western jurisdictions and changes in the strategies invoked to control dangerous behaviours.
Keywords: attitudes, costs of crime, courts, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, fear of crime, fines, forecasting and modelling, legislation impacts, media, offences, offenders, prison inmates, prisons, property offences, recidivism, rehabilitation, sentence administration, sentencing, sentencing effectiveness, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Governing the dangerous: an historical overview of dangerous offender legislation
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES
Availability: Social and Legal Studies, 1996; 5:21-36
Description: Historical analysis of changes in dangerous offender legislation.
Keywords: adjudication, criminal behaviour, fear of crime, forecasting and modelling, legislation impacts, offences, offenders, prison inmates, property offences, recidivism, sentence administration, sentencing, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Criminology and history: understanding the present
Author(s): Pratt, John
Completed: YES
Availability: To be published in Current Issues in Criminal Justice, July 1996.
Description: An examination of the importance of historical research for understanding current trends in penal policy, using dangerous offender laws as a case study.
Keywords: courts, criminal behaviour, judiciary, property offences, recidivism, sentence administration, sentencing, sentencing effectiveness, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Factors in homicide
RESEARCH
Done by: Police National Headquarters Health Services Group (main research), and authors ('domestic' and 'child' reports).
Funded by: -
Method: Literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS, presently at data gathering stage, expected completion date January 1997
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Homicide in New Zealand 1988-1995
Author(s): Eriksen, Sonja, Tracy Anderson and Nestor Russell
Completed: NO, planned completion date January 1997
Availability: Will be available from Police National Headquarters or authors.
Description: Homicide, "the killing of a human being by another, directly or indirectly, by any means whatsoever" (Crimes Act 1961 s159) is arguably the most serious of all crimes yet little has been written on homicide in New Zealand. This study proposes to look at the area of homicide between the years 1988 and 1994 (and 1995 if information is available) and extract details from Police files on when and where the homicides took place, the weapons used, the characteristics of the offenders and victims, the relationship that existed between them, the circumstances of the crimes, the motives involved and how this information compares to data from other countries.
Keywords: alcohol, bias, child abuse, child homicide, crime detection, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, defences used in murder trials, domestic homicide, domestic violence, drugs, ethnic issues, firearm licensing, gender issues, hate crimes, mental health, legislation impacts, Maori, offences, offenders, Pacific Islands peoples, police, prosecution, recidivism, sentencing, sentencing effectiveness, sexual abuse, suicide following homicide, system efficiency/effectiveness, victimisation, victims, violent crime, weapons information, youth
Notes:
Title: Domestic Homicide 1988-1995
Author(s): Anderson, Tracy
Completed: NO, planned completion date January 1997
Availability: Will be available from Police National Headquarters or author.
Description: [abridged] The focus in this report will be on the characteristics of murder as it pertains to the "domestic" area. Of particular focus will be the characteristics between sexual intimates and differences in sentencing patterns between genders.
Keywords: alcohol, bias, crime detection, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, drugs, ethnic issues, gender issues, hate crimes, mental health, legislation impacts, Maori, offences, offenders, Pacific Islands peoples, police, prosecution, recidivism, sentencing, sentencing effectiveness, sexual abuse, victimisation, victims, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Child homicide in New Zealand 1988-1995
Author(s): Eriksen, Sonja
Completed: NO, planned completion date Jan/Feb 1997
Availability: Will be available after completion from Institute of Criminology or Victoria University of Wellington Library.
Description: This is part of a report carried out by Police National Headquarters Health Services Group which looked at the area of homicide in New Zealand - 1988-1995. This study covers child homicide: the age of children killed, bi-modal aspects of child homicide, the issues of gender, relationship between offender and child, method of killing, motives for the murder, the sentences given, defences made, the various child homicides, conviction bias in relation to gender or relationship of offender to victim, evidence of child homicide as a part of family violence, social welfare intervention/participation. This study covers all children aged 0-16 as per the definition of the Children and Young Persons Act 1989. Data will be extracted from police files, court files and various other sources. All information will be compared and related to data from literature search of overseas reports and research.
Keywords: alcohol, child abuse, child homicide, costs of crime, crime prevention, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, drugs, ethnic issues, gender issues, health, Maori, offences, offenders, Pacific Islands peoples, police, recidivism, sexual abuse, victimisation, victims, youth
Notes: Part of M.A. (Crim. Justice) thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Fire awareness and intervention
RESEARCH
Done by: New Zealand Fire Service (Auckland)
Funded by: New Zealand Fire Service
Method: Pilot programme evaluation
Status: IN PROGRESS started in 1993 and ongoing
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Fire awareness and intervention program: helping parents to overcome the problem of child firelighting
Author(s): Coleman, Ray
Completed: YES
Availability: Contact NZ Fire Service, Auckland, Document No. 0012126
Description: ABSTRACT. An initiative of the Fire Safety section of the New Zealand Fire Service to aid parents and educate children who set fires. Records the survey results of an anti-arson initiative and provides statistical data-case studies for evaluation to help reduce the number of incidents of juvenile fire setting.
Keywords: arson programmes, Auckland Metropolitan Fire Brigade, case studies, children, fire safety education programmes, juvenile arson, New Zealand Fire service, parents, youth
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Firearm homicide 1992-1994
RESEARCH
Done by: Authors, for Public Health Association of New Zealand
Funded by: Authors and The Gunsafe Trust
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Firearm homicide in New Zealand: victims, perpetrators and their weapons 1992-94
Author(s): Alpers, Philip and Barbara Morgan
Completed: YES, June 1995
Availability: Most metropolitan public libraries, or contact Philip Alpers, P O Box 90-227, Auckland, ph. (09) 376-3999, fax (09) 376-4212, e-mail alpers@iconz.co.nz
Description: ABSTRACT. Aim. To determine the firearms licensing status and mental and criminal history of perpetrators in firearm homicide, plus the legal status of the firearms used. The location of the shooting, its motivation and the relationship between perpetrator and victim were determined, as well as the type, ownership, origin and security storage of the firearms involved. Method. All New Zealand firearm homicides in the three-year period 1992-1994 were identified. Case summaries were obtained from the New Zealand Police under the provisions of the Official Information Act. A standardised questionnaire was then used to obtain additional data from the case file. All the questionnaires were completed. Results. Most victims were killed by a licensed gun-owner, while 62.5% (and ten out of eleven female victims) were killed with a legal firearm from the collection of a licensed gun-owner. Almost all victims (95%) were killed by a familiar person. Half were shot by their partner, an estranged partner or a member of their own family. Of all the dead, 63% were shot during family violence, 91% of these with a legal firearm. Of the perpetrators, 82% had no predictive history of violent crime, while none had a history of mental illness. Conclusion. These results contradict the suggestion that efforts to reduce firearm violence should be directed only at "criminals and the mentally ill", rather than "law-abiding gun-owners".
Keywords: community safety, crime prevention, crime statistics, domestic violence, firearm homicide, gender issues, gun injury, offences, offenders, victims, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Firearm-related crime
RESEARCH
Done by: Injury Prevention Research Centre (The University of Auckland) and Injury Prevention Research Unit (University of Otago)
Funded by: Injury Prevention Research Centre (The University of Auckland)
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed, November 1995
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Non-fatal firearm misuse: licence status of perpetrators and legality of the firearms
Author(s): Gardiner, James, Robyn Norton and Philip Alpers
Completed: YES
Availability: Contact Injury Prevention Research Centre, The University of Auckland, or Philip Alpers, P O Box 90-227, Auckland, ph. (09) 376-3999, fax (09) 376-4212, e-mail alpers@iconz.co.nz
Description: ABSTRACT. The primary aim of this study was to identify the licence status of those involved in incidents of non-fatal firearm related misuse and to determine the involvement of "legal" firearms in such incidents. Firearm related attempted suicides were excluded. The study also sought to identify the types of firearms most likely to be misused. Over a three month period in early 1994, all non-fatal firearm related incidents reported in any New Zealand newspaper were identified by a commercial clipping bureau. Data pertaining to the licence status and the legality of the firearm involved in these incidents were obtained from the police who completed a standardised questionnaire under the Official Information Act 1982. Over the study period, 78 incidents yielded information on 97 perpetrators and 100 firearms. Of the 97 perpetrators, 66.0% were unlicensed, 19.6% were licensed, the licence status of 8.3% of the perpetrators was unknown and the remaining 7.2% were using air-guns and therefore a licence was not required. Half of the perpetrators involved in domestic disputes were licensed. Of the 100 firearms, 44.0% were classified as "legal firearms" and 56.0% were classified as "illegal firearms". Handguns were disproportionately used in incidents of firearm misuse compared with their assumed prevalence in the New Zealand population. These findings suggest that strategies aimed at reducing or preventing injury due to firearm misuse must focus on both licensed and unlicensed individuals and both legal and illegal firearms, particularly handguns.
Keywords: community safety, crime prevention, crime statistics, domestic violence, enforcement, firearm crime, offences, offenders, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Non-fatal firearm injuries in New Zealand, 1979-1992
Author(s): Langley, J., S. Marshall and R. Norton
Completed: YES
Availability: In press, Annals of Emergency Medicine
Description: ABSTRACT. Aim. To describe the epidemiology of serious non-fatal firearm injury in New Zealand. Method. Cases were selected from the New Zealand Health Information Service's hospital inpatient files for the period 1979 to 1992 inclusive. Result. There were 1,239 firearm related injuries resulting in 2.7 injuries per 100,000 population per year. Males, persons aged 15-24 years, certain occupational groups, and persons living in rural environments had higher rates of injury. Unintentional incidents accounted for 64% of the injuries. At least 25% of the incidents involved shotguns and a further 20% involved rifles. Conclusions. The results presented here serve to support the attention which has been given to preventing firearm injuries in New Zealand. Priority needs to be given to establishing a surveillance system which would provide uniform data on firearm related mortality and morbidity to aid in risk factor research and developing and evaluating intervention programmes.
Keywords: firearms, health, victims
Notes:
Title: Airgun injuries in New Zealand, 1979-1992
Author(s): Langley, J., R. Norton, J. Alsop and S. Marshall
Completed: YES
Availability: Injury Prevention, 1996; 2:114-7
Description: ABSTRACT. Objectives. To describe the epidemiology of serious airgun injury in New Zealand. Methods. Cases were selected from the New Zealand Health Information Services' hospital inpatient morbidity data files for the period 1979 to 1992 inclusive. Results. There were 718 airgun related injuries resulting in 1.56 injuries/100,000 population/year. Males and 10-14 year olds had higher than average rates of injury. The majority of the incidents were unintentional. There has been a marked decline in injury rates since 1989. Conclusions. Airgun injuries, while not as serious as powder firearm injuries, account for a significant personal and societal burden. The results suggest that strategies aimed at controlling these injuries, especially those pertaining to children are in need of review.
Keywords: airguns, firearms, health
Notes:
Title: Firearm related deaths in New Zealand, 1978-1987
Author(s): Norton, R. and J. Langley
Completed: YES
Availability: New Zealand Medical Journal, 1993; 106:463-5
Description: ABSTRACT. Aims. To identify the role of firearms as a public health issue in New Zealand and to consider this information in the context of international research on potentially effective interventions for the prevention of firearm deaths. Methods. National data on firearm related mortality for the period 1978 to 1987 were abstracted to identify all firearm deaths categorised as unintentional, suicide, homicide and of undetermined intent. Results. Over this 10 year period, there were an average of 91 deaths annually, accounting for 0.3% of all deaths. Suicides accounted for 75.5% of these deaths, unintentional deaths for 11.6% and homicides for 10.6%. No significant temporal changes were observed. Conclusions. While deaths from firearms are not a major public health problem in New Zealand, there is still a need to identify strategies likely to lead to reductions in the current levels of firearm deaths. Appropriately targeted legislative and educational strategies may be effective in reducing such deaths.
Keywords: firearms, health, suicide, victims, violent crime
Notes:
Title: Non-fatal firearm injuries: New Zealand compared with USA
Author(s): Langley, J., J. Annest, S. Marshall and R. Norton
Completed: YES
Availability: In Proceedings of the 25th Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics, Washington D.C., July 17-19, 1995. Or through Injury Prevention Research Centre, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland.
Description: ABSTRACT. Aim. To compare the epidemiology of serious non-fatal firearm injury in New Zealand to that in United States of America. Method. New Zealand cases were selected from the New Zealand Health Information Service's hospital inpatient data files for the period 1979 to 19992 inclusive. USA inpatient cases were selected from the USA National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) Firearm Injury Surveillance Study. Results. At 22.0 per 100,000 population, the USA has an inpatient injury rate for non-fatal firearm injuries 8 times that of New Zealand. In the NCIPC inpatient series 35% of the incidents involved handguns whereas in the New Zealand series less than 2% involved handguns. In the New Zealand series, 64% of the injuries were considered to be due to unintentional events whereas they accounted for only 13% in the NCIPC series with assault being the main contributor at 61%. Conclusions. The differences between USA and New Zealand in inpatient rates for overall non-fatal firearm injuries and for those associated with assaults may be related to firearm policies and socio-cultural differences. This needs to be investigated further through epidemiologic studies and international comparisons.
Keywords: firearms, health, victims
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Forecasting crime
RESEARCH
Done by: Ministry of Justice
Funded by: Ministry of Justice
Method: Qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS, expected completion date April 1997
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Forecasting and interpreting crime in New Zealand (working title)
Author(s): Triggs, Sue
Completed: NO, planned publication date April 1997
Availability: Ministry of Justice publication
Description: This project examines the factors influencing crime in New Zealand and will attempt to forecast crime rates. Multiple regression models will be developed to examine the social, demographic, economic and justice factors significantly correlated with crime rates for major offence groups, both across geographic areas and through time. Time series models will also be developed for forecasting.
Keywords: crime statistics, enforcement, forecasting and modelling, offences, offenders, police, property offences, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Going straight
RESEARCH
Done by: Department of Justice
Funded by: Department of Justice
Method: Literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: YES
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Straight to the point: angles on giving up crime
Author(s): Leibrich, Julie
Completed: YES
Availability: Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1993. ISBN 0 908569 78 5
Description: This study analyses why people desist from committing crime. Interviews with a random sample of 50 former offenders in New Zealand included open-ended questions about why and how respondents stopped offending. The stories of 12 respondents are reproduced in detail. Change was prompted by a revision of personal values, reassessing what is important, and acquiring things of value in life (family, self-respect) and fear of consequences and shame. Going straight was accomplished by tackling personal problems using interpersonal resources, accompanied by a sense of life management. Continuing offenders blamed addiction or financial stress as a motivation for their behaviour, reinforced by beliefs that the chance of detection was small, that they had little to risk, and that what they were doing was not really a crime. In giving up crime, probation supervision was perceived as beneficial if the relationship with the probation officer was good. Findings suggest the need to emphasise supervision quality rather than quantity.
Keywords: criminal behaviour, offenders, recidivism, rehabilitation, reparation, sentence administration, sentencing effectiveness, supervision, victims
Notes:
Title: The voice of crime
Author(s): Leibrich, Julie
Completed: YES
Availability: Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, December 1994; 3:107-20
Description: This research into desistance from crime gives a warning that in the policy field of social change, if we define our terms too tidily we will not grasp reality. And if we expect change to be precise and orderly we will miss the point entirely. The crime problem in New Zealand is most easily described in numbers, statistics, graphs and trends. But it is best understood in the voices of individuals and the meaning of life to each person. The implication of this for social policy is that criminal justice programs which focus narrowly on stopping criminal behaviour will not nearly be so effective as social programs in the field of education, health, employment cultural equality, and the strengthening of personal relationships, which will enrich lives of the individuals in our society.
Keywords: attitudes, crime prevention, criminal behaviour, offenders, recidivism, rehabilitation
Notes:
Title: The role of shame in going straight: a study of former offenders
Author(s): Leibrich, Julie
Completed: YES
Availability: In Restorative justice: theory, practice and research, Galaway, Burt and Joe Hudson (Eds). New York: Criminal Justice Press. In Press. See also Accountability in the community: commentary in Re-thinking Criminal Justice Vol I: Justice in the Community McElrea F.W.M. (Ed). Papers presented at a conference held by the Legal Research Foundation in association with the Institute of Criminolgy, Victoria University of Wellington, at Auckland, New Zealand on 12 and 13 May 1995.
Description: A study of former offenders found that people decided to go straight and that shame was a significant feature in their decision. It was the most commonly mentioned reason for going straight and the most commonly mentioned cost of offending. Three kinds of shame were evident: public humiliation, personal disgrace, and private remorse. Private remorse was the most influential and was triggered by an individual offending their personal morality - coming to think that their offending was wrong. There are important implications for a restorative model of justice. There needs to be a strategic framework which simultaneously increases the costs of offending and benefits of desisting, and decreases the benefits of offending and costs of desisting. Restorative programmes need to encourage offenders to evaluate a cost-benefit analysis of continuing to offend. Braithwaite's "reintegrative shaming" can be part of this process and is likely to be most effective when it results not only in personal disgrace but also private remorse. Offenders need support to go straight and shaming which continues beyond their decision to go straight may well impede them.
Keywords: attitudes, crime prevention, criminal behaviour, offenders, recidivism, rehabilitation, restorative justice, sentence administration
Notes:
Title: What do offenders say about supervision and going straight?
Author(s): Leibrich, Julie
Completed: YES
Availability: Federal Probation: a
Journal of Correctional Philosophy and Practice, June
1994;
58(2):41-6.
Description: The features which the offenders identified as being important in a good probation officer/offender relationship were the mirror images of the features which were identified by probation officers ... Where people were negative about probation officers, it was because they felt merely "processed", the officer had been late or not kept appointments and had given the impression of being curious rather than genuinely concerned. In general discussions on the role of probation in reducing reoffending, the offenders here, like probation officers, made the point that the influence probation officers might exert is clearly related to the quality of the relationship they have with the offender. The relationship between probation officer and offender was a crucial factor in whether people got anything out of a sentence of probation. They emphasised the need to find and deal with the cause of offending and stressed that people would only change if they themselves wanted to. Offenders also made the point that the goal of reducing re-offending could only be realised in a limited way, given the many other influences on people's lives. But they were very aware that people will only change if they want to change. These findings have important implications for any corrections system. Given the strength of other influences on an individual's course of change, the extent to which the goal of reducing the likelihood of reoffending can be realised must be seriously questioned. And consequently the setting of specific goals in terms of reducing recidivism must be realistic.
Keywords: attitudes, community corrections, criminal behaviour, offenders, rehabilitation, sentence administration, sentencing effectiveness, system efficiency/effectiveness
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Handgun misuse
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: -
Method: Quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS started 1993, finish 1997
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Compliance with firearms legislation in New Zealand
Author(s): Alpers, Philip
Completed: YES
Availability: NZ Police Association, Wellington, October 1996
Description: Aims. To examine the rates of non-compliance with gun laws and to compare there with compliance rates among other user groups. Method. Data collection from NZ Police and other agencies, literature review and interviews.
Keywords: attitudes, community safety, compliance, crime prevention, firearms, handguns, legislation impacts, police, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Hate crime - Homophobia
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: -
Method: Literature review, critical comment
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Hate crime: homophobia as an example
Author(s): Mason, Gail
Completed: YES
Availability: In Criminology No. 4, September 1995. Wellington: Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington
Description: From a recently completed PhD on homophobic violence against women.
Keywords: gender issues, hate crimes, victimisation
Notes: Also a PhD thesis.
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Insurance fraud
RESEARCH
Done by: Insurance Council of New Zealand
Funded by: Insurance Council of New Zealand
Method: Qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS, expected completion date early 1997
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Insurance Fraud [working title, title not yet decided]
Author(s): [Insurance Council of New Zealand]
Completed: NO, planned completion date early 1997
Availability: [No publication plans]
Description: The Insurance Council is currently surveying companies to try to gauge the extent of insurance fraud. This will be followed up by a public survey on attitudes to insurance fraud.
Keywords: attitudes, criminal behaviour, insurance fraud
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Locking up guns
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: NZ Police Association
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Locking up guns: foiling thieves, children and the momentarily suicidal
Author(s): Alpers, Philip
Completed: YES, February 1996
Availability: Contact Tui Hunter, New Zealand Police Association, Wellington, or Philip Alpers, P O Box 90-227, Auckland, ph. (09) 376-3999, fax (09) 376-4212, e-mail alpers@iconz.co.nz
Description: In New Zealand, 250,000 licensed shooters own an estimated 1.1 million firearms, enough for one in each occupied dwelling and sufficient to outnumber the combined small-arms of the police and armed forces by a ratio of 30 to 1. We own 16 times as many guns per capita as the English and the Welsh, 60% more than the Australians, but less than half as many as the residents of the United States. An additional 14,000 guns are imported to New Zealand in a typical year. Each day an average of seven firearm offences involving danger to life are reported to the police, while one in five homicides are committed with a firearm. On average, one person dies by gunshot in New Zealand every four days. Despite a common certainty that firearms are increasingly misused, there has been little local research. Although critical data on the misuse of firearms are collected by police, these are not made available... In New Zealand, the overwhelming majority of firearm fatalities have nothing to do with crime. Nine-tenths of our fatal shootings are the result of suicide and accidents, four-fifths of non-fatal firearm injuries are self-inflicted or unintentional. This study shows that the illegal "crime gun" and the common "sporting gun" are one and the same, separated only by a change of intent or a lapse of security.
Keywords: attitudes, community safety, crime prevention, crime statistics, enforcement, fines, firearm licensing, firearm theft, offences, police, property offences, system efficiency/effectiveness
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Male survivors of sex abuse
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: Accident Compensation Commission
Method: Literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: IN PROGRESS, expected completion date December 1996
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Non-offending factors in male survivors of sexual abuse
Author(s): Lambie, Ian
Completed: NO, planned completion date February 1997
Availability: -
Description: The findings of the research project are not available at this time [June 1996]. It is envisaged that they will be available late 1996 or early 1997.
Keywords: crime prevention, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, offenders, sexual abuse, victims, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Maori and the criminal justice system
RESEARCH
Done by: Department of Justice
Funded by: Department of Justice
Method: Literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study, Maori-specific methodology
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: The Maori and the criminal justice system: a new perspective: He Whaipaanga Hou
Author(s): Jackson, Moana
Completed: YES, 1987
Availability: Department of Justice Study Series 18, February 1987. Wellington: Department of Justice. ISSN 0113-0234
Description: FOREWORD [excerpt]. This paper is the first stage of an attempt to address the problem of criminal offending by Maori youths and the subsequent imprisonment of a disproportionately high number of these youths when they appear before the courts. It is te tahu tuatahi or the first thread of a research weave from which some understanding may hopefully be gained. The paper seeks to develop a research methodology which can explore the much objectified field of Maori crime from a different and possibly more effective perspective. It is a perspective which takes strands from the extant research and weaves them around a conceptual framework that is especially Maori. The existing research is analysed to elicit responses to certain broad questions: what perspective is the research based on; what facts does it present; what conclusions does it reach; what solutions, if any, are proffered? From each of these questions arise concerns which illustrate the need to adopt a different research viewpoint. These concerns, and the methodology which may be developed from them, are the focus of this paper.
Keywords: access to justice, adjudication, bias, criminal behaviour, enforcement, ethnic issues, Maori, Maori framework of whakawhitiwhiti whakaaro (shared thought), offenders, prosecution, research methodology, sentence administration, sentencing, youth
Notes:
Title: The Maori and the criminal justice system: a new perspective: He Whaipaanga Hou Part 2
Author(s): Jackson, Moana
Completed: YES, 1988
Availability: Department of Justice Study Series 18, November 1988. Wellington: Department of Justice. ISSN 0113-0234, ISBN 0-477-07247-X
Description: This report is the second stage of a research project which attempts to provide some insights into the complex questions of why some Maori men become criminal offenders and how the criminal justice process responds to them. It approaches the topic from within a Maori conceptual framework and seeks to explain Maori perceptions of the causes and consequences of criminal offending. It endeavours to do so within the context of three broad aims: (a) to clearly facilitate a valid explanation of Maori offending from a Maori point of view; (b) to use a Maori research perspective to consider structural, social, and cultural factors within New Zealand society that may lead to criminal offending by young Maori men; and (c) to elicit perspectives on the relationship between the Maori and the criminal justice process, and to ascertain what influence the operations of the process may have on the rate of Maori conviction and imprisonment. The key cultural and philosophical issue in the need for a parallel Maori system [of criminal justice] was the need for Maori people to be able to assert their own rangatiratanga and their own control over the consequences of wrongdoing by their young. That need is part of the indigenous rights of a tangata whenua to make their own decisions in a way that is relevant to them. It is a rejection of the monoculturalism which has tried to turn Maori into non-Maori, and which always assumed that Pakeha models were suitable and appropriate to them. Indeed, if the idea of tangata whenua status, and the guarantee of rangatiratanga in the Treaty is to have meaning, it follows that Maori-based judicial structures are a natural development of the rights implicit in those concepts. The need for research and development to establish such a structure is long term; the need for commitment to its validity is immediate.
Keywords: access to justice, adjudication, bias, criminal behaviour, enforcement, ethnic issues, human rights, Maori, Maori-based judicial structures, offenders, prosecution, restorative justice, sentencing effectiveness, sentence administration, sentencing, system efficiency/effectiveness, youth
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Maori responses to alcohol use
RESEARCH
Done by: Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development), and Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand
Funded by: Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development), and Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand
Method: Literature review, qualitative study, quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Te Maori me te Waipiro
Author(s): Te Puni Kokiri and Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand
Completed: YES, October 1995
Availability: ISBN 0-478-09103-6
Description: Aims. To highlight the effects of alcohol use and the need for Maori communities to be resourced to develop their own strategies to manage consumption of alcohol and its related effects, and to implement their own research. Methodology. Consulted with a number of Kaumatua, Maori service providers, trainers, and policy makers. An analysis of current data was then undertaken.
Keywords: alcohol, Maori
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Mass shootings
RESEARCH
Done by: Author
Funded by: -
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: A decade of mass gun killings in Australia and New Zealand 1986-1996
Author(s): Alpers, Philip
Completed: YES
Availability: In press. Contact Philip Alpers, P O Box 90-227, Auckland. Ph. (09) 376-3999, Fax (09) 376-4212, e-mail alpers@iconz.co.nz
Description: A survey of police files and coroners' records covering all firearm-related mass homicides in Australia and New Zealand in the past ten years. In these 14 mass shootings (including the Port Arthur killings) 124 people died by gunfire. Some of the findings: 73% of the killers are known to have had no previous history of mental illness; 87% of the killers had no previous history of violent crime; two-thirds of the killers were licensed gun-owners; 64% of victims died in a shooting where a military-style semi-automatic rifle was used.
Keywords: attitudes, community safety, crime prevention, crime statistics, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, fear of crime, firearm homicide, gender issues, mass shootings, offences, offenders, victims, violent crime
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Offence base rates
RESEARCH
Done by: Department of Justice Psychological Services
Funded by: Department of Justice
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Report on offence base rates and offender characteristics (1988)
Author(s): Bakker, Leon
Completed: YES
Availability: Apply to Psychological Service, Department of Corrections, P O Box 1206, Wellington.
Description: This paper outlines research undertaken to establish person-based data and to highlight the deficiencies of present official statistics and the need for person-based data to enable decision making about prioritisation of psychological treatment. The 558 offenders that formed the database represented all court appearances that occurred in one week of 1980. The importance of recidivism to the justice system was highlighted by these 588 offenders accounting for over 5,000 court appearances in the five year follow-up.
Keywords: criminal behaviour, offences, offenders, psychological treatment, recidivism, sentence administration, sentencing
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Offence base rates 1995
RESEARCH
Done by: Department of Corrections Psychological Service
Funded by: Department of Corrections
Method: Quantitative study
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Offence base rates 1995 [title not yet decided]
Author(s): [Department of Corrections]
Completed: NO, planned completion date August 1996
Availability: There will be a detailed electronic publication, and a summary hard copy.
Description: Wide-ranging analysis of data on offenders convicted in each police offence code.
Keywords: crime statistics, offences, offenders
Notes:
OFFENDERS AND OFFENDING
Offenders, victims, and their families
RESEARCH
Done by: Community Theatre Trust
Funded by: Department of Justice, and Creative New Zealand
Method: [Qualitative study], oral archival interviews, oral history
Status: Completed
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
Title: Verbatim [AND] Touch and go
Author(s): Brandt, William and Miranda Harcourt
Completed: YES
Availability: Verbatim,
Victoria University Press, 1995. ISBN 0 86473 276 7
Touch and go, contact Community Theatre Trust, P O
Box 11-596, Wellington.
Description: In developing material for the plays Verbatim and Touch and go, the writers/ devisors undertook freely-structured oral history interviews with many inmates from prisons throughout the country about their experiences of violent crime, particularly murder and sexual assault. Both male and female inmates took part as volunteer interviewees. Further interviews with family members of offenders, victims of violent crime and families of victims bring the total of interviews in the 'Verbatim' files to about 45. Both plays have been toured through every prison in New Zealand, and "Verbatim" has toured in Australia, Hong Kong, Britain, Scotland, and in the USA.
Keywords: alcohol, attitudes, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, drama, drugs, education, families, fear of crime, media, offenders, prison inmates, prisons, rehabilitation, restorative justice, victims, violent crime, youth
Notes:
Title: A walk in someone else's shoes
Author(s): Harcourt, M. and B. Pike
Completed: YES
Availability: New Zealand Monthly Review, 1994; 6:14-22, ISSN 01135376
Description: Interviews the actor and producer about her use of oral interviews with prisoners convicted of murder and rape, their families and families of their victims. Describes her use of the material in the plays 'Verbatim' and 'Touch and go', which she co-wrote with William Brandt.
Keywords: crime, crime victims, criminals, drama, oral history, research methodology
Notes:
