Theft

Theft is defined as any other dishonest appropriation of another’s property with intent to deprive him or her of it permanently. This category comprises theft of vehicles, theft from vehicles and other theft/receiving. There were 165,091 recorded incidents of theft in New Zealand in 2003/04, made up of 20,564 vehicle thefts, 49,482 incidents of theft from vehicles and 95,045 incidents of other theft/receiving.

For vehicle theft a multiplier of 1.05 is assumed (this is the 2000/01 Australian multiplier for ‘vehicle theft’). For theft from vehicles a multiplier of 2.8 is assumed (this is the 2003/04 UK multiplier for ‘theft from vehicle’). For other theft/receiving an overall multiplier of 8.28 is assumed. This is a composite of the 2003/04 UK multiplier for ‘other theft and handling’, which does not include businesses, of 2.7 and an assumed multiplier of 25.0 for thefts from businesses (reflecting the high incidence of unreported or undetected crime, mainly shoplifting). It assumes that 25 percent of other/receiving offences are thefts from businesses.

Applying these multipliers brings the estimated total number of thefts in New Zealand in 2003/04 to 946,000. Derived average private sector, public sector and total costs for each category of theft are shown in Appendix Table 3.

Property damage

There were 42,872 recorded incidents of property damage (e.g. arson and wilful damage) in New Zealand in 2003/04.

A multiplier of 4.3 is assumed (this is the 2003/04 UK multiplier for ‘criminal damage’), bringing the estimated total number of incidents of property damage in New Zealand in 2003/04 to 184,300.

Fraud

There were 17,568 recorded incidents of fraud in New Zealand in 2003/04. Fraud covers a wide spectrum of offences (e.g. counterfeiting, using stolen credit cards, abusing positions of trust for financial advantage, providing false information to obtain welfare benefits, ACC payments, etc.).

On the basis of a number of international business crime surveys, Mayhew (2003) suggests a multiplier of 4.0, taking into account both undetected and unreported frauds. Applying this brings the estimated total number of incidents of fraud in New Zealand in 2003/04 to 70,300.

Given the wide range of fraud offences and the potential for a small number of very high-value incidents, it is difficult to derive a unit cost estimate for losses resulting from fraud. In the absence of anything better we have used the $700 million estimate that was derived by the NZIER from information supplied by the Serious Fraud Office in 1995, inflated by the CPI change between 1993/94 and 2003/04. Unit intangible costs are assumed to be the same as for burglary.

In addition to core justice sector costs relating to Fraud (e.g. the SFO) there are costs borne by other public sector agencies in preventing and detecting fraudulent behaviour, e.g. MSD, IRD and Customs.

Drug offences

This category comprises cannabis and other drug offences. There were 22,249 recorded drug offences in New Zealand in 2003/04, comprising 18,271 cannabis and 3,978 other drug offences.

We have categorised drug offences as crimes with no direct or intended victim and assumed that the costs of drug offences are simply those borne by the criminal justice system in prevention, detection, resolution and sanction. In other words, the estimated total count of drug offences is the same as the number of recorded offences and so the multiplier is one. It is likely that some drug offenders (both recorded and unrecorded) also incur potentially significant health and lost output costs. However, we have not attempted to estimate these costs at this time. It is therefore probable that the cost estimate for drug offences is too low. This is an area for further work.

Drug users and dealers are commonly responsible for other crimes (e.g. violent offences and burglary). These are already captured under the relevant categories. Derived average private sector, public sector and total costs for each category of drug offence are shown in Appendix Table 4.

Serious traffic offences

The total number of serious traffic offences is calculated as the total of drink-drive and dangerous/reckless driving offences. There were 31,667 drink-drive and dangerous/reckless driving offences recorded in New Zealand in 2003/04. It is assumed that all such incidents resulting in fatalities and injuries are recorded, and so the multiplier is one.

The costs of serious traffic offences comprise two sets of data. The first is estimated costs borne by core justice sector agencies catching and dealing with serious traffic offenders through the justice system. The second is estimated victim costs of fatalities and injuries resulting from crashes where alcohol and speed have been identified as factors (using Land Transport Safety Authority crash data for 2003). Surveys of fear of crime have consistently highlighted public concern about drink-drivers. This suggests that the intangible costs of serious traffic offences as calculated here are potentially understated.

All other

This category is a residual, picking up all administrative offences (e.g. perjury and bigamy), property abuse offences (e.g. trespass and littering) and anti-social offences (e.g. disorder and unlawful group assemblies). Note that while this sub-category is included within the ‘no direct or intended victim’ category for convenience, in some instances the offences may have direct victims (e.g. bigamy impacting on the legal spouse).

There were 69,494 other offences recorded in New Zealand in 2003/04. It is reasonable to assume that most of the costs of these offences are those borne by the criminal justice system (i.e. there are few direct victims and so negligible associated health sector, lost output or intangible costs). Therefore a multiplier of one is used. While it is likely that the private sector will face at least some preventative and intangible costs as a result of these types of offences (e.g. security lighting or worry), these have not been included due to a lack of data.