Key Stories report analyses crime stats

New research from the Ministry of Justice is putting the trends behind key crime statistics under the microscope. Key Stories is an annual report which examines findings from the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS). “This report provides deeper analysis and context behind the key findings from Cycle 8 of the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) conducted between October 2024 and October 2025,” says the Ministry of Justice’s General Manager, Sector Insights, Rebecca Parish. This year, Key Stories has highlighted the following trends: Number of family violence victims down; incidents up The proportion of adults experiencing family violence offences fell from 2.2 percent in 2018 to 1.4 percent in 2025.  This was driven by a drop in one-off incidents, and incidents perceived as less serious. At the same time the number of family offence incidents increased, from 207,000 in 2018 to 256,000 in 2025. This increase overly impacted victims of repeated incidents, and other groups including disabled people, Māori, women, and LGBTQ+ adults. “The increase in incidence tells us that although fewer people are suffering from family violence, those who are already in the cy...