Source: Radio New Zealand
The annual Crime and Victims Survey showed 28 percent of adults – or 1.2 million people – were victims of crime during the 12 months to October 2025. 123rf.com
New figures from the Ministry of Justice show fewer people are becoming victims of crime.
The latest results from the annual Crime and Victims Survey showed 28 percent of adults – or 1.2 million people – were victims of crime during the 12 months to October 2025.
Ministry of Justice general manager sector insights Rebecca Parish said it was the lowest figure since the survey began in 2018.
“What’s behind that is we’ve seen decreases in a number of types of crime including violent crime which has come down, and also fraud, like those online scams,” she said.
Data released from the survey last month showed there were 49,000 fewer victims of violent crime in the year to October 2025 than two years previously.
The survey showed from 2018 to 2025, the proportion of victims of crime dropped from 30 percent to 28 percent.
Adults with disabilities were more likely to be targeted.
“In 2025 disabled adults were still significantly more likely to experience crime despite their older age profile. While on average 28 percent of adults experienced crime, it was 36 percent for disabled adults. This rises to 46 percent once their older age distribution is accounted for,” the survey said.
Burglary was experienced by nine percent of households (184,000), down from 12 percent in 2018.
Other household offences, such as trespass and vehicle-related crimes, were also at their lowest levels since the survey began.
“That’s a trend we’ve been seeing for a number of years now, and likely relates to the fact more people are working from home, and there’s been improvements in home security, the accessibility of that and affordability,” Parish said.
However, fewer adults felt safe in 2025 compared to 2018.
In the survey, 25 percent of adults reported feeling completely safe, a slight increase from 24 percent in 2024 but still down from 30 percent in 2018.
Meanwhile, 12 percent of people said they felt unsafe, down from 13 percent in 2024 but still up from 9 percent in 2018.
“That can be influenced by a lot of things, if they’ve experienced things themselves as victims or also media reporting of crime can play a role in people’s sense of safety,” Parish said.
The proportion of adults who were victims of fraud and cybercrime had been on a downward trend since peaking in 2022, though it remained higher at 10 percent (440,000 people) in 2025 compared to eight percent in 2018.
The survey found people were generally more concerned about nationwide crime than crime in their neighbourhoods.
Over three-quarters of adults were concerned about family violence, drugs and dangerous driving at a national level. Locally, fewer than half of adults were concerned about the same issues.
The issues of greatest concern locally were dangerous driving, vehicle offences, theft and burglary.
The proportion of adults who were victims of violent offences was lower in 2025 (three percent) than in both 2024 and 2018 (four percent).
“While these results are positive, we are also mindful that behind each statistic is a real person, some of whom have experienced crime and victimisation, and assisted us by providing valuable insights through their responses,” Parish said.
Parish said the survey was important because it covered both reported and unreported crime.
The survey said 36 percent of victims reported at least one incident to the police, and only about a quarter of all crime was reported in 2025.
It said most adults reported having at least some trust in the law system (83 percent) and the justice system (81 percent), however levels of trust varied across groups.
In 2025, just 28 percent of Māori adults reported having high trust in the justice system compared with 44 percent for the New Zealand average and 59 percent for Asian adults.
Police said it was pleased levels of trust and confidence in police remained stable in the results at 69 percent.
Assistant Commissioner Jeanette Park said maintaining trust and confidence with communities was a constant priority for the police, and whilst it was encouraging to see several improvements, there was always more work to be done.
Police said almost three quarters (74 percent) of New Zealanders agreed that police dealt effectively with serious crime, an increase from 70 percent in 2024.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
