Children who offend are a group who are under-researched in New Zealand. This research report aims to fill some key information gaps around the profile of child offenders in New Zealand and their patterns of offending and reoffending.

The findings from this research will inform future work under the cross-agency Youth Crime Action Plan in response to Government commitments made in September 2012 following the Social Services Select Committee’s Inquiry into the identification, rehabilitation, and care and protection of child offenders.

Offending trajectories were examined for the 1995 to 1999 birth cohorts to the end of 2013, and child offenders aged 10 to 13 years in the period 2009 to 2013 were examined in some depth.

Children who offend are a group who are under-researched in New Zealand. This research report aims to fill some key information gaps around the profile of child offenders in New Zealand and their patterns of offending and reoffending.

The findings from this research will inform future work under the cross-agency Youth Crime Action Plan in response to Government commitments made in September 2012 following the Social Services Select Committee’s Inquiry into the identification, rehabilitation, and care and protection of child offenders.

Offending trajectories were examined for the 1995 to 1999 birth cohorts to the end of 2013, and child offenders aged 10 to 13 years in the period 2009 to 2013 were examined in some depth.

Key findings

• An estimated one in twenty New Zealand children offend before age 14
• The number of child offenders has dropped considerably
• Despite offending less, Māori children remain significantly over-represented
• Large drop in shoplifting, and violent offending down
• Fewer children are becoming offenders
• Early identification of persistent offenders is critical to reduce crime
• Police responses reflect changing patterns of offending
• A little over half of all child offenders reoffend within two years

Conclusions

Offending by children has dropped in the last five years for both genders, across all ethnic groups and ages, across almost all offence types, and in all regions.

A falling youth crime rate is not unique to New Zealand, and the reasons for the fall are unclear and therefore subject to debate. It is likely due to the confluence of a number of factors such as: changes in police practice; better public and private security measures; more effective youth justice interventions; goods often subject to theft or burglary historically continuing to become affordable to more people; and a proliferation of smart phones and video gaming devices among youth which may prevent some opportunistic crimes through boredom. The factors behind the fall in crime may also differ for different types of crime.

Much of the drop in offending by children in New Zealand has been because of a drop in first-time child offenders. This is a very positive finding.

It is encouraging that there was at least a third fewer child offenders from all ethnic groups apprehended in 2013 than in 2009. However, the decrease for Māori was smaller than that seen for European and Pacific children, with the consequence that the over-representation in the offender statistics of Māori children is exacerbated. This over-representation at the front-end of the youth justice system flows through to other parts of the system (i.e. Child, Youth and Family and the Youth Court).

It is important to understand and address the complex interplay of risk factors that lead to Māori children, both boys and girls, being apprehended at a greater rate than children from other ethnic groups. Broadly, attention needs to focus on two areas. Firstly, the rate of Māori children offending and entering the youth justice system in the first instance needs to be reduced. Secondly, for those children who do come in contact with the system, there needs to be effective interventions to increase the likelihood that they do not reoffend.

Although a minority (20%) of child offenders committed the majority (57%) of offences by children over the five-year period 2009 to 2013, this was not a small group (around 3,600 children). Within these figures there were 820 children who committed around 11,000 offences, including 170 children who committed nearly 4,200 offences. These figures support the view that early identification and application of effective interventions with high-risk child offenders presents an opportunity to steer the children onto a more positive path, thereby preventing a large number of future crimes and a large number of people from becoming victims.

Children who offend are a group who are under-researched in New Zealand. There would be benefit to further research in the following areas:

• The dynamics of offending by Māori children, and what effective interventions for this group would look like.
• Who are the high-risk child offenders, how can they be identified early, and what would effective interventions for this group look like?