Crime & Justice
None of Them Are Convicted Yet: Violence Remand Just Hit a Record
The number of people held on remand for assault-type offences hit 4,956 in 2025, the highest in 27 years of records and the biggest single-year jump ever. Here's the part that gets left out of the law-and-order speeches: not one of them has been found guilty.
One Year, Two Records: Homicide Remand Went From Near-Low to All-Time High
In 2024, the number of people held on remand for homicide and related offences was the lowest in eight years. In 2025 it hit 222, the highest in 27 years of records. Those two numbers sit twelve months apart, and that's the story.
Vandalism Charges Aren't Surging. But Remand for Them Has Doubled.
The number of people sitting in jail awaiting trial for property damage hit 429 in 2025, up from 252 just three years earlier. For 25 years the figure barely moved. Something changed, and it wasn't graffiti.
A Thousand More People Now Sit in Jail Awaiting Trial for Burglary
Burglary remand numbers just hit 3,207, the highest in 27 years of records and up more than a thousand in a single year. But before you assume the country is being overrun by break-ins, look at what this number actually measures.
Remand Numbers Just Jumped 23% in a Year. The Biggest Leap on Record.
While the headlines are about alleged corruption inside North Island prisons, Stats NZ figures show remand prisoner numbers hit 20,268 in 2025. That's the largest single-year jump in 27 years of records, and it happened without a single conviction being added.
The Youth Crime Wave, Measured: 165 Sentenced 17-Year-Olds. Same as 2022.
How big is the youth crime wave, really? The Stats NZ count of Youth Court sentences handed to 17-year-olds says something duller: the number in 2025 is exactly the same as it was in 2022. Here's what six years of flat data actually shows.
Youth Court Adult Sentences Hit a 14-Year High. They're Still Down 72% Since 1997.
Three crime stories led the news this week, and the youth justice numbers just spiked to their highest level since 2011. But zoom out and the same dataset shows something worth holding onto: we're still handing down a fraction of the adult sentences we did in the 1990s.