Court statistics on young offenders¹²

7.1 Introduction 

Children (i.e. those aged under 14) and young people (i.e. those aged 14 to 16 inclusive) who offend are dealt with by the criminal justice system differently from older people. Children and young people are dealt with under the provisions of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 (CYP& F Act). As it relates to youth justice, the CYP& F Act indicates that "... unless the public interest requires otherwise, criminal proceedings should not be instituted against a child or young person if there is an alternative means of dealing with the matter" (s.208). Most young people (approximately 80%) who are apprehended are dealt with by the Police Youth Aid Section and are given a warning or diversion. Only the minority of young people apprehended are referred to a family group conference[13] or are prosecuted in the Youth Court.

The CYP& F legislation provides that in most cases where a young person is arrested and brought before the Youth Court, the court must adjourn the proceedings until a family group conference has been held (s.246). The family group conference is required to recommend to the court whether the young person should be dealt with by the court or in some other way (s.258(d)). Where a young person is not arrested, proceedings may not be instituted unless a family group conference has been held (s.245). In these cases, the young person will only appear in court if the family group conference recommends that the matter be dealt with by the courts (s.258(b)) or if the enforcement officer (usually a police officer) disagrees with the recommendations of the conference (s.263(1)(b), s.264(2)). The CYP& F Act, therefore, places an emphasis on diverting young people from formal prosecution processes in court, and using the family group conference as a means of making decisions about young offenders.

A child under the age of 10 cannot be prosecuted for any offence. Children aged 10 to 13 can only be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. When a child aged 10 to 13 commits any other type of offence, the offending will be dealt with under the Care and Protection provisions of the CYP& F Act (as opposed to the Youth Justice provisions), if the number, nature, or magnitude of the offence(s) give serious concern for the well-being of the child.

The focus of this chapter is to examine trends in the number of cases involving young people coming before the courts, the outcome of those cases, and the type and seriousness of the offences involved in proved cases. Information is also provided on the gender, age and ethnicity of young people coming before the courts. As the majority of cases, and in particular the less serious cases, involving young people are not dealt with by formal proceedings in court, the court statistics presented in this chapter do not give an accurate picture of overall trends in offending by young people.

As discussed above, most young offenders who are apprehended are not prosecuted in formal court proceedings. Therefore, before discussing statistics on the young people who had at least one appearance in the Youth Court, information is presented on the number of 14 to 16 year olds apprehended by the Police since 1994 (section 7.2). These figures do give an indication of trends in offending by young people. As was discussed in section 2.1, while offending trends may be due to actual changes in offending behaviour, other factors such as reporting and recording practices, and policy and legislative changes can significantly influence offending statistics.

The jurisdiction of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 relates to a defendant's age at the time of committing an offence, rather than the age at the finalisation of proceedings. Therefore, this chapter includes information on all cases eligible to be heard before the Youth Court. This consists of: all cases involving persons aged between 14 and 16 years at the time when their cases were finalised; and all cases involving people aged 17 years at the time when their cases were laid and who offended when they were aged under 17 years (regardless of their age when proceedings for the case were finalised). It should be noted that in cases where a young person is charged jointly with a person who is not a young person, it is at the discretion of the Youth Court as to whether both offenders will be dealt with in the Youth Court or elsewhere.

Cases involving traffic offences that are not punishable by imprisonment are not usually dealt with under the provisions of the CYP& F Act and, for this reason, such cases have been excluded from the court statistics given.

7.2 Number of 14 to 16 year olds apprehended by the Police 

Table 7.1 shows the number of 14 to 16 year olds apprehended by the Police since 1994 for each offence type. (Data for 1992 and 1993 were not available.) It should be noted that people who are apprehended for more than one offence are counted once for each offence. 

The total number of apprehensions of 14 to 16 year olds by the Police fluctuated between 30,000 and 31,000 each year from 1995 with no clear trend emerging. The 2001 figure for 14 to 16 year olds was 7% greater than the figure in 1994. By way of comparison, apprehensions of adult offenders (i.e. those aged at least 17 years) have fluctuated between 150,000 and 153,000 annually since 1996, with no clear trend emerging. The 2001 figure for adults was 4% greater than the figure in 1994.

The number of 14 to 16 year olds apprehended for violent offences has increased by 21% since 1994, with the 2001 figure (2,885) being the highest recorded in the period under examination. Apprehensions of adult offenders for violent offences decreased between 1994 and 1999 (from 25,439 to 23,987), but have increased in the last two years. The 2001 figure for adults (25,893) was 2% greater than the figure in 1994.

Table 7.1 Number of offenders aged 14 to 16 apprehended by the Police for non-traffic offences, by type of offence, 1994 to 2001¹

Notes:

1. The data used to produce this table was sourced from New Zealand Police. Offences were grouped using the Ministry of Justice offence classification rather than the Police classification for consistency with the rest of the report. Data for 1992 and 1993 were not available in the required form, so could not be included in the table. The figures in this table do not refer to distinct offenders, as people who are apprehended for more than one offence are counted once for each offence.
2. Murder, manslaughter, and attempted murder.
3. Sexual violation, attempted sexual violation, and indecent assault.
4. "Grievous" and "serious" assaults, including assaults by males on females, and assaults on children. See the notes to Table 2.7 for a list of offences included in the grievous and serious assault categories.
5. Mainly common assault under the Summary Offences Act 1981.
6. Mainly unlawful getting into or interfering with a motor vehicle, unlawfully taking a bicycle, receiving stolen property, and fraud-related offences.

The majority of apprehensions involving 14 to 16 year olds are for property offences. In 2001, 61% of apprehensions of 14 to 16 year olds were for property offences - a lower proportion than in previous years. The number of apprehensions for property offences involving 14 to 16 year olds decreased between 1996 and 1998, and has generally stayed at a lower level in subsequent years. The 2001 figure was the lowest recorded in the period under examination. The number of apprehensions for property offences involving adult offenders showed a similar trend, with the 2001 figure (52,994) being 9% lower than the figure in 1994 (57,927). 

Apprehensions of 14 to 16 year olds for drug offences increased significantly between 1994 and 1997, and have remained fairly stable at the higher level since then. The 2001 figure was 69% greater than the figure in 1994. Apprehensions of adults for drug offences have fluctuated around an average of 21,000 annually with no clear pattern. The 2001 figure was 3% lower than the figure in 1994. 

The number of apprehensions of 14 to 16 year olds for offences against justice more than tripled between 1994 and 2001. It is likely that at least part of this increase was due to a greater focus by the Police on compliance with bail conditions. There may also have been a greater focus (including changes in recording procedures) by the Police with regard to young people absconding from Department of Child, Youth and Family Services residences (including family homes) when the young person was remanded into the custody of the Chief Executive of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services under section 238(1)(d) of the CYP& F Act. The number of adults apprehended for offences against justice more than doubled between 1994 and 2001 (from 5,026 to 10,853). 

Apprehensions for offences against good order increased by 29% for both 14 to 16 year olds and adults over the period under examination.

7.3 Outcomes of prosecutions of young people

Table 7.2 shows the outcomes of cases prosecuted in court involving young persons for all offences except non-imprisonable traffic offences.

There has generally been an increasing trend throughout the decade in the number of cases involving young people, although in recent years the increase has been relatively small. In 2001, there were 4,159 cases involving young people that came before the courts, 59% more than the number in 1992 (2,613).

The proportion of cases involving young people that resulted in conviction in the District or High Court (after the case was transferred for trial or sentencing) was between 10% and 12% between 1992 and 1998, but decreased slightly in subsequent years to 7% in 2001. 

The proportion of all cases involving young offenders that were "proved" in the Youth Court has been a little higher in the last five years than in earlier years in the decade. In 2001, 32% of cases resulted in such an outcome. 

There has been a significant increase over the decade in the number and percentage of cases that were discharged under Section 282 of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989. In 1992, such discharges accounted for 19% of outcomes for young people, but in the last two years, a third of cases have resulted in such an outcome.

Table 7.2 Outcomes of cases prosecuted involving young people for all offences except non-imprisonable traffic offences, 1992 to 2001

Notes:

1. Convicted in the District or High Court.
2. Discharge without conviction (in the District or High Court) under section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985, after the offender is found guilty or pleads guilty.
3. Cases finalised in the Youth Court that were proven. These cases are not recorded as convictions.
4. Section 282 of the CYP&F Act allows the Youth Court to discharge an information laid against a young person, so that the information is deemed never to have been laid. In the vast majority of such cases, the young person would have admitted the offence, been sent to a Family Group Conference, and would have had to have complied with the recommendations made at the conference, before having the information discharged by the Court.
5. Cases that were withdrawn, dismissed, discharged (excluding cases discharged under Section 282 of the CYP&F Act), struck out, not proceeded with, or acquitted.
6. Includes cases where there was a stay of proceedings. Also includes cases where the person was found to be under disability or was acquitted on account of insanity, and an order was made under section 115 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985.

The percentage of cases involving young people that had a "not proved" final outcome (excluding Section 282 cases) decreased from 40% of cases in 1992 to 26% of cases in 2000, before increasing slightly to 29% of cases in 2001. 

Table 7.3 shows the outcomes of cases involving young people prosecuted in court in 2001 according to the type of offence. There is considerable variation between offence types in the outcome of cases. Miscellaneous offences (53%) were far-and-away the most likely to result in conviction. The vast majority of these convictions involved minors consuming alcohol in a public place. Violent offences (37%) were the most likely to result in a final outcome of "proved" in the Youth Court.

Table 7.3 Outcomes of cases prosecuted in 2001 involving young people for all offences except non-imprisonable traffic offences, by type of offence

Table 7.4 shows the outcomes of cases involving young people prosecuted in court in 2001 according to the gender, ethnicity, and age of the young person. Males accounted for 82% of the cases involving young people finalised in 2001. Males were slightly more likely than females to have a proven final outcome (in the Youth, District, or High Court).

Over half (51%) of the cases dealt with in 2001, for which the ethnicity of the young person was known, involved Māori, a further 38% involved Europeans, and 9% involved Pacific peoples. Māori appeared to be slightly more likely than European and Pacific peoples to have a proven final outcome.

Sixteen year olds accounted for the largest proportion (43%) of the cases involving young people in 2001. Those aged 15 years accounted for nearly a quarter (24%) of cases, while those aged 17 years (at the time of sentencing) accounted for 23% of cases. People aged 14 years accounted for only 9% of the cases involving young people dealt with in 2001, while those aged 18 or more accounted for 1% of the cases. The likelihood of a proven final outcome, and in particular a conviction, tended to increase with the increasing age of the young person at the time they were sentenced. The exception was the small number of people aged at least 19 years, who were aged under 17 when they offended. Only a very small proportion of such cases resulted in a proven final outcome.

Table 7.4 Outcomes of cases prosecuted in 2001 involving young people for all offences except non-imprisonable traffic offences, by gender, ethnicity, and age of young person

Notes:

1. The gender of the young person was not available for 1 Youth Court proved case. The ethnicity of the young person was not available for 34 convicted cases, 1 s.19 discharge case, 20 Youth Court proved cases, 24 cases where there was a s.282 discharge, and 41 "not proved" cases.
2. Age of the person when the case was finalised.
3. People aged 17 at the time the case was finalised who were aged under 17 when they offended.
4. People aged 18 at the time the case was finalised who were aged 17 or under when the case was laid and were aged under 17 when they offended.
5. People aged at least 19 years at the time the case was finalised who were aged 17 or under when the case was laid and were aged under 17 when they offended.

7.4 Types and seriousness of cases that were proved 

Tables 7.5 and 7.6 show the number and percentage of proved cases against young people that involved offences of various types over the period 1992 to 2001. "Proved" cases in this and subsequent subsections in this chapter refer to cases that resulted in a conviction in the District or High Court, or which had a final outcome recorded as proved in the Youth Court.

Violent offences have accounted for about a quarter of the proved cases involving young people each year in the decade. The number of proved cases involving a violent offence almost doubled between 1992 and 1998 (from 239 to 468), before decreasing in 1999 to 401. In the last two years, the number has increased again to be 439 in 2001 - the second highest figure recorded in the decade.

Table 7.5 Number of proved cases involving young offenders, by type of offence, 1992 to 2001¹

Notes:

1. The numbers in this table cannot be compared directly with those in Table 7.1 because of different counting rules, and the fact that the year a case is finalised is not necessarily the same year as the offender was apprehended.
2. Motor vehicle conversion.
3. Drive with an excess blood or breath alcohol level, or refuse to supply a blood specimen.
4. Reckless or dangerous driving.
5. Other imprisonable traffic offences.

The number of aggravated robbery cases proved against young offenders doubled between 1992 and 1998 (from 76 to 153), but the number has been lower in the last three years. The 2001 figure (127) is the lowest recorded since 1996. The number of (non-aggravated) robberies has fluctuated around an average of 53 convictions annually since 1994, with no clear pattern. The number of "grievous" or "serious" assaults proved against young offenders increased significantly between 1992 and 1996 (from 59 to 142), and has generally remained at this higher level since then. The 2001 figure (148) was the highest recorded in the decade. 

Throughout the decade the majority of proved cases against young offenders have involved property offences. Burglaries have accounted for over half of the proved property offences throughout the decade.

Table 7.6 Percentage of all proved cases involving young offenders involving each type of offence, 1992 to 2001

The number of proved cases involving offences against justice has been greater in the last five years compared to earlier years in the decade. The vast majority of the increase occurred for escaping from custody offences. This finding may be due to a greater focus in recent years by the Police with regard to young people absconding from Department of Child, Youth and Family Services residences (including family homes) when the young person was remanded into the custody of the Chief Executive of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services under section 238(1)(d) of the CYP& F Act. 

Imprisonable traffic offences have accounted for approximately one in ten proved cases involving young offenders throughout the decade. The number of proved cases involving driving with excess alcohol offences in 2001 was the highest recorded in the decade. 

Table 7.7 shows the number of proved cases involving young offenders with each level of offence seriousness and the average seriousness of these offences for each of the years 1992 to 2001. The table includes all cases proven in the Youth, District or High Court against young offenders.

Table 7.7 Number of proved cases involving young offenders with each level of offence seriousness and average seriousness of offences, 1992 to 2001

Note: The seriousness of offence scale was updated in 2000. The figures for each year in this table are calculated using the new scale.

The average seriousness of proved cases involving young offenders has fluctuated between approximately 180 and 220 over the decade with no clear pattern. Within the most serious offence grouping (i.e. scores of >500) there was an average of 195 proved cases annually in the period 1997 to 2001, compared with 140 annually between 1992 and 1996. Within this category, the number of proved cases in the last three years has been slightly lower than the number in 1997 and 1998.

Earlier in the report, Table 2.5 showed that the average seriousness of all cases resulting in conviction in the District or High Court was around 30. The much higher average seriousness figure for young offenders (204 in 2001) is an indication that the Youth Court mainly deals with the more serious end of youth offending. Most of the less serious offences by young people are dealt with by some form of diversion from the formal court process.

7.5 Sentencing of young offenders

Some of the sentences that can be imposed in the Youth Court once a charge against a young offender has been proved differ from those that the District or High Court can impose. The Youth Court cannot impose the Criminal Justice Act community-based sentences (periodic detention, community programme, community service, and supervision by a probation officer) or imprisonment sentences (corrective training for 16 to 19 year olds, and other imprisonment); these sentences can only be imposed in the District or High Court.

The Youth Court can, however, make an order placing a young person under the supervision of the Chief Executive of the Department administering the CYP& F Act (currently the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services), or under the supervision of any other specified organisation for a period not exceeding six months. The Youth Court can also make a supervision with activity order, which requires the offender to undertake a specified activity or programme for a period of up to three months. Under the CYP& F Act, a supervision with residence order can be made placing a young person in the custody of the Chief Executive of the Department administering the Act for a period of three months.

A community work order can also be made, such that the young person undertakes work in the interests of the community for between 20 and 200 hours. 

Young offenders can be transferred to the District Court for sentencing once a case has been proved. For certain offences, young offenders may, after a preliminary hearing in the Youth Court, be tried in the District Court or High Court. If a case is finalised in the District or High Court then any of the full range of penalties available to these courts can be imposed on the young person. 

Tables 7.8 and 7.9 show the number and percentage of proved cases involving young offenders resulting in each sentence over the period 1992 to 2001. Only the most serious sentence imposed in each case is shown in the tables. 

As described earlier, an imprisonment sentence or an adult community-based sentence can only be imposed on a young person if the person was transferred to the District or High Court for trial or sentencing. Up until 1996, the majority of young people who were imprisoned were given corrective training (a brief custodial sentence with a rigorous regime for young people aged 16 to 19). In the period 1997 to 2001, other imprisonment sentences were used more frequently than corrective training. The proportion of proved cases that resulted in any type of custodial sentence remained between 8% and 9% between 1992 and 1997, but dropped to 5% by 2001.

Table 7.8 Number of proved cases involving young offenders resulting in each type of sentence, 1992 to 2001

Notes:

1. Adult community-based sentence (periodic detention, community programme, community service, or supervision).
2. Order placing the young person under the supervision of the Chief Executive of the Department administering the CYP&F Act.
3. To come up for sentence if called upon, or a suspended prison sentence.
4. Where a case is proved, the Youth Court Judge can admonish (reprimand) the young person.
5. Cases finalised in the District or High Court where the offender was convicted and discharged, and cases where the final outcome in the Youth Court was "proved", but no Court order was made.

The proportion of cases involving young offenders resulting in an adult community-based sentence has been slightly lower in the last five years than in earlier years in the decade, with the 2001 figure (7%) being the lowest recorded in the decade. 

A community work order was made for 12% of the cases in 1992, but the proportion has decreased significantly over the decade to 5% in 2001.

The proportion of proved cases resulting in a Youth Court supervision order has remained around a third of cases throughout the decade, with the proportion being marginally higher in the last four years than in earlier years in the decade. Some of the cases resulting in a supervision order are supervision with activity orders and some are supervision with residence orders. The data that indicates the type of sentence imposed does not distinguish between these supervision orders. However, there is a free-text field in the data that records additional information on the sentences imposed. While this information needs to be treated with caution (as this field may not be completed in all cases), for 20% (113) of the cases where a supervision order was made in 2001 the free-text field mentioned a residence order, and for 20% (112) of the cases where a supervision order was made the free-text field mentioned an activity order.

Table 7.9 Percentage of proved cases involving young offenders resulting in each type of sentence, 1992 to 2001

In 2001, just over 17% of proved cases resulted in a monetary penalty - a slightly higher proportion than in earlier years in the decade. 

The proportion of proved cases resulting in a deferred sentence has decreased over the decade from 12% of cases in 1992 to 5% of cases in 2001. In contrast, the proportion of proved cases resulting in an outcome of admonished, with no other sentence or order being imposed, has increased from 4% of cases in 1994 to 18% of cases in 2001. Admonition involves the offender receiving a reprimand from a Youth Court Judge. 

Section 258(e) of the CYP& F Act allows a family group conference to "consider how the young person should be dealt with for [an] offence, and to recommend to the Court accordingly." Information on decisions of family group conferences is not recorded in the data used to produce this report. In some cases where a young offender had only a minor sentence imposed by the Court, he or she may have undertaken some particular action or activity as a result of a family group conference decision. For example, it could be that a family group conference decided that a young person should undertake some work as compensation to the victim of an offence, and the Court awarded a deferred sentence, so that the offender could be brought back to Court if the work was not completed.

7.6 Final court of sentencing 

Eighty-two percent of the proved cases involving young offenders in 2001 were finalised in the Youth Court - the highest proportion recorded in the decade. The remaining 18% of the cases were nearly all finalised in the District Court, with only 12 of the 1,608 proved cases in 2001 being finalised in the High Court.

Table 7.10 Percentage of proved cases involving young offenders that were finalised in each court, 1992 to 2001

Table 7.11 shows the Court where proved cases were finalised in 2001, by the type of offence involved. According to the Case Monitoring data, 44 of the 296 cases finalised in the District or High Court were transferred for sentencing after the case was "proved" in the Youth Court. All of the 44 cases transferred for sentencing resulted in a custodial or adult community-based sentence.

Table 7.11 Court where proved cases involving young offenders were finalised in 2001, by type of offence

Note: 1 Cases involving traffic offences which are not punishable by imprisonment are not usually dealt with under the provisions of the CYP&F Act, and for this reason cases relating to non-imprisonable traffic offences have been excluded from the figures given.

At least 80% of proved violent offences, imprisonable traffic offences, and property offences were finalised in the Youth Court in 2001. Miscellaneous offences were the least likely to be resolved in the Youth Court in 2001. The vast majority of these convictions involving minors consuming alcohol in a public place.

Footnotes

12 The court statistics presented in this chapter are, as near as possible, based on all court cases eligible to be heard in the Youth Court. The definition that was used to select these cases in the current report was slightly different to that used in previous annual publications. Therefore, the information included in this chapter is not comparable to information included in previous reports for years prior to 1992. See subsection 1.3 for further details. 

13 The Department of Child, Youth and Family Services Annual Report for the year ending 30 June 2002 lists the volume of Youth Justice Family Group Conferences in 2001/ 02 as 6,094.