NCJ Number
159077
Date Published
1995
Length
164 pages
Annotation
This report is the primary source of statistics on New Zealand's criminal court proceedings and sentencing.
Abstract
The first chapter presents tables that show the outcome of prosecutions for all offenses except traffic offenses over the last 9 years and discusses trends in these data. The chapter then examines convictions for nontraffic offenses in more depth and presents information on trends between 1985 and 1994 in the number of convictions for particular types of offenses. The chapter also examines offense seriousness over the 10-year period for each type of offense, using a seriousness-of-offense scale. Chapter 2 presents information for 1994 on the gender, ethnicity, and age of offenders who were convicted for all offenses except traffic offenses. For the first time in this series of reports, information is presented on the regions where non-traffic offenses were finalized in 1994. The third chapter addresses trends in sentencing for all nontraffic offenses. Information is provided on the seriousness of offenses that resulted in each type of sentence and on the number of sentences of each type. Custodial sentences are examined in depth, and information is provided on trends in the length of custodial sentences. Information on sentences imposed in each region is also provided. Information on traffic offenses is provided in the fourth chapter, and chapter 5 reports on the types of offenses committed by young offenders and the sentences imposed on these offenders between 1986 and 1994. The sixth chapter, a new feature of this report, presents information on trends in the total number of cases that resulted in custodial and community-based sentences. The report's main findings are summarized in the final chapter. 102 tables and 8 figures