Foreword | Acknowledgements | Tables & Figures | Executive Summary | Introduction | Levels of knowledge about crime and the criminal justice system | Attitudes to criminal justice professionals | Crime seriousness | Sentencing practice | Aims of sentencing | General discussion/concluding remarks | References | Appendices
The report presents the findings of the first comprehensive national survey of the views of a sample of adult New Zealanders about crime and the criminal justice system’s response to crime. A random sample of 1500 adult New Zealanders responded to a range of questions, including questions about the relative seriousness of some crimes, the aims of sentencing and their preferred choices of sentence for some crimes. Those who answered the survey were also questioned about their knowledge of some crime and criminal justice statistics.
The survey findings are many. They suggest, for example, that while there may be general agreement among the New Zealand public in relation to the sentencing of offenders convicted of more serious crimes (such as importing heroin and aggravated burglary), there is likely to be a divergence of opinion with respect to crimes of medium seriousness.
The survey also found low levels of knowledge about some aspects of crime and sentencing. For example, in relation to sentencing, the misunderstanding of those surveyed tended to be in the direction of underestimating statutory maximum sentence lengths, actual sentence practice and time served in prison by offenders sentenced to imprisonment.
Since the survey was conducted in 1999, a major reform of the sentencing and parole regimes in New Zealand has taken place, with the commencement of the Sentencing Act 2002 and the Parole Act 2002 on 30 June 2002. These two Acts largely replace the Criminal Justice Act 1985. The Sentencing Act 2002 provides for greater clarity, consistency and transparency in sentencing legislation and rationalises community-based and other sentences. The Parole Act 2002 aims to address inconsistencies in the proportion of a custodial sentence that must be served and to improve the parole decision-making structure in New Zealand. The effects of the Sentencing Act 2002 and Parole Act 2002 will continue to be monitored.
As you will note there has been a significant delay between the conduct of the survey and the preparation of the survey findings for publication. This was primarily due to illness and other more urgent work priorities. Prior to its preparation for publication, however, the survey results were available to the Ministry’s policy staff working on the Sentencing and Parole reforms.
Warren Young
Deputy Secretary for Justice