Young adults

On this page, we answer:

The NZCASS interviews New Zealand residents aged 15 years and older. Because the NZCASS asks about incidents that happened in the year before the interview, this means that for some 15 year old respondents, victimisation may have taken place while they were 14. The age we report is the respondent’s age at time of interview, not the incident.

‘Young adults’ fall into 2 NZCASS age groups: people aged 15 to 19 years and people aged 20 to 29 years.

How much crime is experienced by young adults?

As with previous years, young adults were more likely to be victimised than the NZ average (24%):

30% of 15 to 19 year olds were victims of crime in 2013
33% of 20 to 29 year olds were victims of crime in 2013

Even after other demographic differences are controlled for, being younger is one of the strongest predictors of being a victim of crime.

When considering the different type of offences, young adults are more likely to experience violent interpersonal offences, burglary and vehicle offences than the NZ average:

Violent interpersonal offences – 17% of 15 to 19 year olds and 18% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced violent interpersonal offences, both higher than the NZ average of 10%.
Burglary – 10% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced a burglary, higher than the NZ average of 8%.
Vehicle offences – 10% of 15 to 19 year olds and 9% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced a vehicle offence, both higher than the NZ average of 7%.

Note: Burglary and vehicle offences are household offences – the age is based on the respondent’s age rather than all household members. As such, we advise caution when interpreting these statistics.

When we look at violent interpersonal offences by different relationships to the offender, young adults continue to remain more likely to be victimised:

Intimate partners – 14% of 15 to 19 year olds and 13% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced a violent interpersonal offence by an intimate partner, both higher than the NZ average of 5%.
Family excluding intimate partners – 7% of 15 to 19 year olds experienced a violent interpersonal offence by a family member, higher than the NZ average of 3%. We found no statistically significant difference from the average for 20 to 29 year olds.
People known excluding family – 9% of 15 to 19 year olds and 7% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced a violent interpersonal offence committed by someone they knew (excluding family), both higher than the NZ average of 4%.
Strangers – 6% of 20 to 29 year olds experienced a violent interpersonal offence committed by a stranger, higher than the NZ average of 3%. We found no statistically significant difference to the average for 15 to 19 year olds.

How much crime do young adults report to Police?

In 2013, people aged 15 to 19 years old were less likely to report an incident to the Police (18% compared to the NZ average of 31%). There was no statistically significant difference in the reporting behaviour of those aged 20 to 29 and the national average.

How do young adults define what happened to them?

In NZCASS, all incidents we report on are legally considered crimes. Where someone experienced an incident, they were asked whether they thought what happened to them was ‘a crime’, ‘wrong, but not a crime’ or ‘just something that happens’.

People aged 15 to 19 year olds (37%) and 20 to 29 year olds (28%) were more likely to define the incident as ‘wrong, but not a crime’ than the NZ average (22%).

How do young adults perceive their safety and worry about victimisation?

People aged 15 to 19 years old felt safer after dark than the NZ average (78% compared to 72%). We found no statistically significant difference between 20 to 29 year olds’ feelings of safety and the NZ average.

When asked about how worried they were about victimisation, young adults were more worried (very or fairly) about being victimised than the NZ average in a range of areas. These differences included:

47% of 15 to 19 year olds and 46% of 20 to 29 year olds were worried about vehicle theft, both higher than the NZ average of 37%
52% of 20 to 29 year olds were worried about vehicle damage or interference, higher than the NZ average of 42%
17% of 15 to 19 year olds were worried about being assaulted by people they knew, higher than the NZ average of 10%
31% of 15 to 19 year olds were worried about being sexually assaulted, higher than the NZ average of 23%
53% of 20 to 29 year olds were worried about a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver, higher than the NZ average of 49%.

There were no areas where young adults were less worried about victimisation than the NZ average.

This page was last updated: 04th March 2020