Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ruth Money: Chief Victims Advisor on the number of victims of violent crime dropping by 49 thousand

Transcript

Ruth Money: Chief Victims Advisor on the number of victims of violent crime dropping by 49 thousand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So forty nine thousand fewer victims of violent crime in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the year to October compared to two years prior. This
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: has come from the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: So what of these numbers. Let's go to Ruth Money,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: who's the government's chief victim's advisor. Ruth good morning, Good morning.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: First of all, are these numbers solid and sound?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they are solid and sound. The New Zealand Crime
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and Victims Survey is the benchmark. I guess it's not
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: just disclosed crime, so it's just not what's reported to
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the police, but it's also undisclosed crime or unreported crime.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: So the survey surveys people who have perhaps experienced a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: burglary at home or sexual violence but have for whatever
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: reason decided not to report it to the police. So
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: it is our benchmark measure.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: And when we say violent crime, what would your class is? Violent?
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Sexual assault? Non sexual assault that's physical so you know
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: you're outside of bar and someone punctes you, for example,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: a common assault, which is what the Crimes Act would
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: call it all robbery. Family violence is also included, so
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: sexual stuff and or physical stuff in terms of interpersonal relationships.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And what do you put the drop down to HM.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: That's the magic thing. Hey, if we knew that, we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: do more of it. Look, I think it is a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: mix of all sorts of things. When I speak with survivors,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: when I speak with the sector who are helping survivors,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a lot of it is that there is a lot
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: more of police presence so they feel safer, and we
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: do know that that deters crime people, you know, police
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: being present. But I also think there may be some
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: kind of sentencing effect where we've got people who are
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: recidivis defenders. We don't want to put everybody in prison,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: but we do want to keep the community safe, so
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: if people are in prison, they can't hurt other people.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a mix, I think from what I
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: from what I hear from the front line, and what
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I experienced talking to people.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It's interesting you're hearing you say that, Ruth, because it's
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: not a revelation. You know, if you are somebody who
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: repeatedly violently assaults people and you're in jail, then it
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: stands to reason you won't be able to do that anymore.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's exactly right. It is exactly right. You
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: are in the safest place for you and more importantly
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: for us, until you know we can hopefully rehabilitate your behavior,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: but at least keep us safe. Thank you very much.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, I.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Spoke to Eugene Berman yesterday from Citykickboxing about faux Vark
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: who was coward punched, and he was saying, we want
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: some minimum non parole for a coward punch offense. Do
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we need more minimum non parole periods in your view?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Well, that's an interesting call because I know that the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: judiciary doesn't like them, and they will do anything to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: kind of avoid a charge that will be linked to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: a minimum non parole period in my experience, so it
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: makes it very difficult when they come across. I'm sorry
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: when that happens. There's a normal often a negotiation between
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: prosecution and defense, and the charges can change. So I'm
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: really conscious that you could become or you could end
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: up with an unintended consequence by putting a mandatory minimum
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: non parole period. The judiciary really don't like it, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: I understand that to a level, because everybody's circumstance is different. However,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the coward punches are a horrific crime and they do
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: need to be sentenced appropriately, which I don't believe they
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: are in most cases.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: When you say that the judiciary doesn't like the non
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: parole period offenses and tries to almost brig aloud of them, why.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Is that, Well, ultimately, you know, the judiciary is independent
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: and it's their court, and so it's their job to
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: assess everything that is in front of them and make
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the best decision for the community and the offender. But
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the offender is obviously the party to the preceding. The
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: victim isn't. And this is something that you and I
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: have spoken about for over ten years. The victim is
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: not considered, right, their outcome is not considered because that's
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: not what the justice system's job is to do. Unfortunately,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: it's something I want to change, but that's not the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: system we have right now. So the judiciary can only
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: do what's in front of them, which is to consider
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: all of the material, which is about the person who
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: did the violent crime rather than about the community and
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: about us. So I'm trying to get the weights right.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the judiciary goes, well,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you know, we need to try and rehabilitate this person.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: And the Sentencing Act does say that they need to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: look at the least sentence possible in that in their occurrence.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: So's it's a different They walk a tight a tight
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: rope and it is a difficult thing to get everybody,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: make everybody happy. But yeah, I'm with Eugene. I'm not
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: happy Ruth comes the victims. I'm not happy Ruth.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time so early this morning on
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a Friday. Thank you very much for being with me,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Ruth Money, Chief Victim's Advisor. For more from Early Edition
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks it'd be
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio