Who experiences crime?

Characteristics, like gender, age or income, affect people’s chances of being victims of different types of crime. Here you can learn more about who experiences crime:

What demographic factors are linked with experiencing crime?

We looked at different demographic factors – including gender, age and ethnicity – to understand who is most at risk of experiencing crime.

Gender

In 2013, neither men (24%) nor women (24%) were more or less likely to experience one or more offences than the NZ average (24%). This was also true for violent interpersonal offences and theft and damage offences.

However, when we looked at violent interpersonal offences by the victim’s relationship to the offender, we found that in 2013:

men (4%) were more likely than the NZ average (3%) to have been the victim of a violent interpersonal offence by a stranger
women (6%) were more likely than the NZ average (5%) to have been the victim of a violent interpersonal offence by an intimate partner.

Even after controlling for other factors, being female was one of the best predictors that someone would be a victim of violent interpersonal offences committed by an intimate partner.

Age

We found a strong correlation between age and victimisation in 2013. The younger someone was, the more likely they were to be the victim of crime.

When compared to the NZ average (24%), people aged 15–19 years (30%) and 20–29 (33%) were more likely to be the victim of one or more offences in 2013. People aged 65 years and over (12%) were less likely.

See Young adults and Victimisation of seniors (people aged 65 and over) for information on how these groups experience crime.

Ethnicity

As in 2005 and 2008, Māori continued to show higher rates of victimisation for all types of offences in 2013. Māori were also more likely than the NZ average to be a victim of interpersonal violence, no matter who the offender was.

To better understand Māori victimisation, we asked who in the Māori population were more at risk of victimisation, and whether Māori were still more highly victimised if we controlled for key factors. See Māori victimisation for the answers to these and other questions.

Similar to Māori (33%), Pacific peoples (32%) were also more likely than the NZ average (24%) to have been the victim of one or more offences in 2013.

When we looked at Pacific peoples’ experience of crime in 2013, we found they were:

more likely to be the victim of a violent interpersonal offence by a stranger (6%), compared to the NZ average of 3%
no longer more likely to be the victim of a violent interpersonal offence by an intimate partner (6%), compared to the NZ average of 5%.

Does a person’s relationship status affect their risk of experiencing crime?

We looked at how someone’s relationship status can affect their risk of experiencing crime, and found that compared to the NZ average of 24% in 2013:

people who were partnered but not legally registered (30%) and people who were not partnered (27%) were more likely to experience one or more offences
people who were in a legally registered partnership i.e. those who were married or in a civil union were less likely to experience one or more offences (20%).

We asked how much a person’s relationship status is linked to other factors. For example, we know younger people are highly victimised – they also tend to be unmarried and in less formal partnerships. To test this, we asked: If the age of those in legally registered partnerships (i.e. those who were married or in a civil union) and people who were in non-legally registered partnerships (e.g. boyfriend/girlfriend) were the same as the combined average, would those in non-legally registered partnerships still be more highly victimised?

Before controlling for age, those in non-legally registered partnerships were 10 percentage points more likely to be the victim of one or more offences in 2013 than people in a legally registered partnership. When we controlled for age differences, the gap closed to 4 percentage points – but this was still a statistically significant difference. This means there is something other than age that made people in less formalised partnerships more likely to experience crime.

What socio-economic factors are linked with experiencing crime?

We asked a number of questions in the NZCASS to help us understand the economic wellbeing of people who experienced crime.

People experiencing financial hardship or living in more highly deprived areas were more likely than the NZ average to be a victim of crime in 2013.

We found that people were more likely than the NZ average (24%) to experience one or more offence in 2013 when they were:

unemployed (33%)
living in quintile 5 (most deprived) areas (32%)
unable to meet a $500 unexpected expense (31%)
very limited or couldn’t buy a $300 non-essential item (31%)
not in the labour force (doing home or caring duties instead) (30%)
studying (30%)
employed (25%).

What types of households are more likely to experience crime?

We looked at whether the kind of household someone lives in can affect their risk of experiencing crime. We found that one-parent households were more likely than the NZ average to be the victim of one or more offence in 2013.

One parent with child(ren) were more likely to experience one or more:

violent interpersonal offence (17%), compared to the NZ average (10%)
burglary (11%), compared to the NZ average (8%)
vehicle offences (11%), compared to the NZ average (7%)

One parent with child(ren) and other people were more likely to experience one or more:

violent interpersonal offence (21%), compared to the NZ average (10%)
theft and damage offence (12%), compared to the NZ average (6%)

We also found one-parent households were more likely than the NZ average to be the victim of interpersonal violence whatever the victim’s relationship to the offender.

Tenure and landlord type

We also looked at who owned the house victims of crime lived in. We found that people who lived in government rented (34%) or private rented accommodation (27%) were more likely than the NZ average (24%) to be the victim of one or more offences in 2013.

People living in rented accommodation – either government (18%) or private tenants (14%) – were also more likely to experience a violent interpersonal offence compared to the NZ average (10%). This remained true whatever the victim’s relationship to the offender.

In comparison, people who lived in a home they owned (including with a mortgage) were less likely than the NZ average to be victims of crime in 2013 (22%). They were also less likely to be the victims of violent interpersonal offences, burglary and vehicle offences.

Where people live changes their risk of experiencing crime

We looked at where people who experienced crime lived. We found the risk of experiencing one or more offences in 2013 (compared to the NZ average of 24%) was:

higher for people living in Auckland (28%)
no different for people living in Wellington (23%) or Canterbury (24%)
lower for people living in the North Island outside Auckland or Wellington (22%) and people living in the South Island outside Canterbury (18%)

People living in Auckland (4%) were also more likely than the NZ average (3%) to experience a violent interpersonal offence when the offender was a stranger.

When looking at who experienced crime by area, we found people living in main urban areas (26%) were more likely to be the victim of one or more offences when compared to the NZ average (24%) in 2013, while people living in minor urban areas (18%) or rural areas (18%) were less likely.

This page was last updated: 04th March 2020