New violence laws snare 16 people a day

It’s been 213 days since new family violence laws came into force and police have taken action against at least 16 people each day for harming someone close to them.

And police have revealed that at least a third of all family harm investigations happen in the Auckland region.

Figures released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show that from December 3, when three new offences became official, to the end of April, police had dealt with 687 people for strangling and suffocation offences and a further 2800 for assaulting a family member.

Of those, 681 had been charged with strangulation and suffocation and were put before the courts, and 2711 charged with assaulting a family member.

The rest were either dealt with via non court action, formal warnings or informal warnings.

The figures for May and June were not available.

New Zealand has the worst rate of family and intimatepartner violence in the developed world — and more than 80 per cent of incidents go unreported.

The new offences were introduced to make specific acts a criminal offence. Previously

Police [attend] one family violence episode every four minutes.

Inspector Fleur de Bes, police harm reduction manager

there was no separate offence for strangulation or assaulting a family member.

Instead, the offences were treated as standard assaults.

The change was part of the Family Violence Amendment Act, replacing the Domestic Violence Act.

Other police statistics related this month show that in 2018 police investigated 133,022 family harm cases, and 37,599 offences were established, 19,801 people arrested and 16,254 prosecuted.

In 2017 121,762 investigations led to 39,690 offences being identified, 21,606 arrests and 16,863 prosecutions.

Police harm reduction manager Inspector Fleur de Bes earlier told the Herald that family violence was a “significant” issue for all New Zealanders.

“With police attending one family violence episode every four minutes, based on 2018 figures, this means that it is likely that someone you know will be affected.”