The number of burgled households in New Zealand fell significantly over the past 12 months - but burglaries are still one of the three crimes that make up more than half of all offences in the country.
The findings are part of the 2021 New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey, published on Wednesday by the Ministry of Justice, which reveals trends in crimes by drawing on the experiences of 6244 randomly selected New Zealanders over the age of 15. These people were interviewed throughout 2021.
The report covers how much crime there is in New Zealand, who is experiencing crime, sexual violence and violence by family members, the impact of COVID-19 on victimisation, reporting crimes to the police, distribution of crime, and perceptions of safety.
It found that the most common crime types were harassment and threatening behaviour, burglary, and fraud and deception. Together, these made up 51 percent of all offences.
The proportion of households that experienced burglaries fell significantly, from 12.1 percent in 2018 to 9.3 percent in 2021. But the number of burglary incidents increased compared to the previous year. The report said this indicates households that were burgled were more likely to experience multiple burglaries, indicating a "growing concentration of burglaries".
From 2020 to 2021, there was a significant increase in the proportion of repeat burglaries, up to 63 percent from 40 percent.
The reduction in burglaries wasn't evenly distributed across demographic groups. Some of the largest decreases were among more vulnerable population groups, including Māori, those living in more deprived neighbourhoods, those not in a stable relationship, those living alone or in a sole parent household, and those with a high level of psychological distress.
But the pandemic did have an impact on the number of burglaries. The survey found that prevalence rates for burglaries, household property damage, and overall household offences had significantly reduced since the start of the pandemic.
The three most-common offence types
Harassment and threatening behaviour was the most common offence type in 2021, with the other two being burglary and fraud and deception. There were 306,000 harassment and threatening behaviour offences, the report said, which is 18 percent of offences overall.
Burglary was the second most common offence type and the most common household offence type. There were 289,000 burglaries over the previous 12 months, making up 17 percent of all offences.
And lastly, fraud and deception was the third most common offence type. There were about 288,000 offences of this type during the previous 12 months, which was 17 percent of all offences.
Reporting to police
The report also detailed whether and how often someone reported incidents to the police and looked at why some weren't disclosed.
Car theft had the highest likelihood of being reported (80 percent), while 98 percent of cybercrime offences went unreported.
The most common reason for not reporting an incident to the police in 2021 was "too trivial/no loss or damage/not worth reporting" (45 percent of incidents). Some of the most common reasons for not reporting offences by family members were "private/personal/family or whānau matter" (38 percent), "dealt with matter myself/ourselves" (29 percent), and "shame/embarrassment/further humiliation" (24 percent).
Seventeen percent of offences by family members were not reported to the police because victims "didn't want to get offender into trouble".
Other reasons for not reporting to police were "police couldn't have done anything", "didn't have enough evidence to report it, and "dealt with the matter myself/ourselves".
