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Speaker 1: So forty nine thousand fewer victims of violent crime in

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Speaker 1: the year to October compared to two years prior. This

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Speaker 1: has come from the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey.

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Speaker 1: So what of these numbers. Let's go to Ruth Money,

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Speaker 1: who's the government's chief victim's advisor. Ruth good morning, Good morning.

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Speaker 1: First of all, are these numbers solid and sound?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they are solid and sound. The New Zealand Crime

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Speaker 2: and Victims Survey is the benchmark. I guess it's not

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Speaker 2: just disclosed crime, so it's just not what's reported to

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Speaker 2: the police, but it's also undisclosed crime or unreported crime.

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Speaker 2: So the survey surveys people who have perhaps experienced a

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Speaker 2: burglary at home or sexual violence but have for whatever

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Speaker 2: reason decided not to report it to the police. So

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Speaker 2: it is our benchmark measure.

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Speaker 1: And when we say violent crime, what would your class is? Violent?

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Speaker 2: Sexual assault? Non sexual assault that's physical so you know

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Speaker 2: you're outside of bar and someone punctes you, for example,

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Speaker 2: a common assault, which is what the Crimes Act would

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Speaker 2: call it all robbery. Family violence is also included, so

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Speaker 2: sexual stuff and or physical stuff in terms of interpersonal relationships.

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Speaker 1: And what do you put the drop down to HM.

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Speaker 2: That's the magic thing. Hey, if we knew that, we

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Speaker 2: do more of it. Look, I think it is a

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Speaker 2: mix of all sorts of things. When I speak with survivors,

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Speaker 2: when I speak with the sector who are helping survivors,

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Speaker 2: a lot of it is that there is a lot

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Speaker 2: more of police presence so they feel safer, and we

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Speaker 2: do know that that deters crime people, you know, police

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Speaker 2: being present. But I also think there may be some

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Speaker 2: kind of sentencing effect where we've got people who are

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Speaker 2: recidivis defenders. We don't want to put everybody in prison,

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Speaker 2: but we do want to keep the community safe, so

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Speaker 2: if people are in prison, they can't hurt other people.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a mix, I think from what I

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Speaker 2: from what I hear from the front line, and what

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Speaker 2: I experienced talking to people.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting you're hearing you say that, Ruth, because it's

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Speaker 1: not a revelation. You know, if you are somebody who

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Speaker 1: repeatedly violently assaults people and you're in jail, then it

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Speaker 1: stands to reason you won't be able to do that anymore.

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Speaker 2: That's it. That's exactly right. It is exactly right. You

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Speaker 2: are in the safest place for you and more importantly

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Speaker 2: for us, until you know we can hopefully rehabilitate your behavior,

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Speaker 2: but at least keep us safe. Thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: In the meantime, I.

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Speaker 1: Spoke to Eugene Berman yesterday from Citykickboxing about faux Vark

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Speaker 1: who was coward punched, and he was saying, we want

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Speaker 1: some minimum non parole for a coward punch offense. Do

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Speaker 1: we need more minimum non parole periods in your view?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's an interesting call because I know that the

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Speaker 2: judiciary doesn't like them, and they will do anything to

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Speaker 2: kind of avoid a charge that will be linked to

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Speaker 2: a minimum non parole period in my experience, so it

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Speaker 2: makes it very difficult when they come across. I'm sorry

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Speaker 2: when that happens. There's a normal often a negotiation between

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Speaker 2: prosecution and defense, and the charges can change. So I'm

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Speaker 2: really conscious that you could become or you could end

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Speaker 2: up with an unintended consequence by putting a mandatory minimum

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Speaker 2: non parole period. The judiciary really don't like it, and

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Speaker 2: I understand that to a level, because everybody's circumstance is different. However,

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Speaker 2: the coward punches are a horrific crime and they do

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Speaker 2: need to be sentenced appropriately, which I don't believe they

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Speaker 2: are in most cases.

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Speaker 1: When you say that the judiciary doesn't like the non

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Speaker 1: parole period offenses and tries to almost brig aloud of them, why.

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Speaker 2: Is that, Well, ultimately, you know, the judiciary is independent

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Speaker 2: and it's their court, and so it's their job to

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Speaker 2: assess everything that is in front of them and make

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Speaker 2: the best decision for the community and the offender. But

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Speaker 2: the offender is obviously the party to the preceding. The

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Speaker 2: victim isn't. And this is something that you and I

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Speaker 2: have spoken about for over ten years. The victim is

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Speaker 2: not considered, right, their outcome is not considered because that's

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Speaker 2: not what the justice system's job is to do. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: it's something I want to change, but that's not the

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Speaker 2: system we have right now. So the judiciary can only

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Speaker 2: do what's in front of them, which is to consider

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Speaker 2: all of the material, which is about the person who

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Speaker 2: did the violent crime rather than about the community and

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Speaker 2: about us. So I'm trying to get the weights right.

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Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the judiciary goes, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, we need to try and rehabilitate this person.

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Speaker 2: And the Sentencing Act does say that they need to

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Speaker 2: look at the least sentence possible in that in their occurrence.

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Speaker 2: So's it's a different They walk a tight a tight

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Speaker 2: rope and it is a difficult thing to get everybody,

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Speaker 2: make everybody happy. But yeah, I'm with Eugene. I'm not

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Speaker 2: happy Ruth comes the victims. I'm not happy Ruth.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time so early this morning on

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Speaker 1: a Friday. Thank you very much for being with me,

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Speaker 1: Ruth Money, Chief Victim's Advisor. For more from Early Edition

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Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks it'd be

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Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio