Six-month murder figure almost same as for 1984

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 4

Six-month murder figure almost same as for 1984

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Almost as many murders occurred in the first six months of this year as in the whole of 1984, according to the Commissioner of Police, Mr Ken Thompson. This was the most significant fact in the half-yearly crime statistics given by Mr Thompson yesterday.

There had been 33 murders in the first half of 1985, compared with 19 for the first half of 1984, and 40 for the whole of 1984. Twelve of the murders so far this year — more than one-third — had occurred in dwellings where some form of sanctuary might be expected. he said.

Of course, not every one of these murders in dwellings had been the result of domestic problems, but this was an area of great concern to the police, Mr Thompson said.

Domestic-related incidents had always had a

frightening potential, and the police were very much the outsiders, he said. Such incidents could escalate quickly from name-calling to violence. Police training in New Zealand emphasised reconciliation when dealing with domestic pursuits. However, there was a growing body of evidence overseas that greater use of arrest powers might be more effective in many cases.

The police would be examining this philosophy with a view to rethinking’ their approach to domestic incidents, Mr Thompson said. During the first six months of 1985, some 201,800 offences had been reported to the police (up 5.2 per cent on the same period in 1984). So far, 79.796 of these cases had been cleared, at a rate of 39.5 per cent (down 2.4 per cent).

Dishonesty was the biggest single crime group at 66.1 per cent, followed by

drugs and anti-social behaviour at 12.2 per cent, and property damage at 6.2 per cent.

The numbers of offences for violence during the period, with comparative 1984 figures in parentheses, were:

Homicide, 51 (33); kidnapping, 49 (34); robbery, 520 (399); grievous assaults, 121 (110); serious assaults, 1682 (1553); minor assaults 5793 (6053); intimidation, 1687 (1598); and group assemblies, 27 (32). Aggravated robbery had shown the biggest increase among offences of dishonesty, Mr Thompson said. This was a disturbing trend as it showed that weapons were being used more in robbery.

The numbers of offences of dishonesty during the period, with comparative 1984 figures in parentheses, were:

Burglary, 36,907 (35,008); car conversion, 26,127

(21,641); theft, 58,362 (54,013); receiving, 1003 (929); and fraud, 11,020 (10,268). Mr Thompson said almosts half of all robberies occurred in public places, and the number of car conversions had risen by 20.7 per cent. In the period there had been 32,408 so-called “serious crimes” committed, an increase of 16.9 per cent. The clearance rate so far had been only 24 per cent (2 per cent down).

The statistics for “serious crime” for the period, with comparative figures for 1984 in parentheses, were: Violence, 2320 (2049); sexual, 229 (218); drugs and anti-social, 524 (579); dishonesty, 28,792 (24,297); property damage, 543 (573). Although dishonesty seemed to have the biggest rise, to some extent this was a consequence of inflation catching up with what was defined as “serious crime,” he said.