Criminal conviction and sentencing statistics (series)

About the data This page gives the source of the data in the criminal conviction and sentencing tables and explains what statistics have been included or excluded. It also provides important information about data quality, the effect of appeals, and describes situations where published data may be revised. Source The criminal conviction and sentencing tables contain data from the Ministry of Justice's statistical reporting datasets. The data were sourced from the courts' operational data systems. The Law Enforcement System (formerly known as the Wanganui Computer and used by justice agencies from the late 1970s until 2005) was used as the source of these data up until 2003. From 2004, the data have been sourced from the Ministry of Justice's Case Management System. Identifying details have been removed, and data have been aggregated to ensure information is anonymous. For Children and young people with finalised charges in court – most serious offence and Children and young people given an order in court – most serious offence tables, data have been randomly rounded to base 3. Inclusions and exclusions Adults (aged 17 and over; or from 1 July 2019 onwards aged 18 and over) or finalised charges for adults are counted in: Adults convicted in court by sentence type - most serious offence calendar year Adults convicted in court by sentence type - most serious offence fiscal year Adults with finalised charges in court - most serious offence calendar year Adults with finalised charges in court - most serious offence fiscal year Charges finalised for adults by offence type calendar year Charges finalised for adults by offence type fiscal year Children and young people (aged 10 to 16 or from 1 July 2019 onwards aged 10 to 17) are counted in: Children and young people given an order in court - most serious offence calendar year Children and young people given an order in court - most serious offence fiscal year Children and young people with finalised charges in court - most serious offence calendar year Children and young people with finalised charges in court - most serious offence fiscal year Read how children and young people are defined. Quality of data Data in the tables has been simplified and categorised for high-level analysis. Like all operational data, it could contain anomalies that would not affect its day-to-day use but could cause errors for statistical analysis. For example, incorrect coding of some data items may not affect how charges or cases progress through the court system. However, coding errors can impact on how the data is categorised and counted when reporting statistical summaries. The chance of such anomalies occurring is minimal. There are rigorous processes in place to verify, and ensure that, operational data is accurate and therefore suitable for statistical analysis. Effect of appeals Data from the previous two years should be considered provisional as appeals can influence charge outcomes and sentences. Any comparison between previous versions of the criminal conviction and sentencing tables can show differences caused by these appeal changes. Re-sentencing data needs to be treated with caution as it may not have been reported in all cases. Revision of published data Changes in legislation, improved analysis methods, corrections to earlier data or changes in classifications may mean that the statistics are slightly different to those published in previous years. For example, a conviction may be overturned on appeal or a sentence changed, which would affect conviction and sentencing statistics. Each year’s release recalculates figures from previous years and may not be comparable with previous releases. en-NZ