In 2020, New Zealand police finalised 807 charges against young people for abduction, harassment and similar offences. In 2021, it was 804. Two years running, almost identical.

Then 2022 happened. The number jumped to 1,146. That's a 42% increase in twelve months.

It kept climbing. 2023: 1,206 charges. 2024: 1,245 charges. That's the highest level since 2011, back when the figure sat at 1,257. (Source: Stats NZ, youth-finalised-charges)

So what changed? The pandemic ended. Schools fully reopened. Lockdowns lifted. Young people were back in the world, and something shifted in how they were interacting with each other, or how police were responding to those interactions.

The stability from 2020 to 2021 is striking. Two years of nearly identical numbers, right through the most disruptive period in recent memory. Then the moment restrictions eased, the trajectory broke upward and hasn't stopped.

This isn't about a single spike. It's about a sustained climb across three consecutive years. Each year higher than the last. Each year further from the pre-2022 baseline.

These are finalised charges, meaning police deemed them serious enough to prosecute. This category includes abduction, criminal harassment, threatening behaviour, and breaches of protection orders. It's not minor stuff. And it's happening more often among young offenders than at any point in over a decade.

The numbers tell you when the change happened. They don't tell you why. But the timeline is clear: something shifted in 2022, and we're still living with the consequences.

Youth crime trends rarely move in straight lines. They respond to social conditions, policing priorities, policy changes. The flat 2020-2021 period suggests the pandemic itself wasn't the driver. The surge came after, when normal life resumed.

Now the question is whether 1,245 charges is the new normal, or whether this trajectory keeps climbing. Because if the pattern holds, 2025 will be worse still.