There’s a call for the Government to put more tailored victim support services in place, following the release of a new report which showed only a third of family violence offences against adults were reported in New Zealand in 2018.
The survey released by the Ministry of Justice, Offences by Family Members, also recognised the disproportionate number of Māori who are victimised, compared with non-Māori.
Dr Kim McGregor is the Chief Victims advisor to the Government. She says policy makers have to make sure they’re investing in the right areas for the groups who are most affected.
Those groups include Māori and women both young and adult.
"We need tailored services for those groups in particular," says Ms McGregor.
"I've given Government recommendations for how to improve the criminal justice system from a victim's perspective and one of those recommendations is wrap-around, tailored services for those specific groups.
"Different ethnicities, different ages, different cultures need different responses."
The survey, Ms McGregor explains, paints a picture of unreported crime.
"They’re disclosing to a Government researcher undisclosed violence that they wouldn’t tell the police," she says.
The survey showed an extremely high number of offenders are family members.
"If only 23 per cent of victims of crime report to the police we have to have alternative processes available for the other 75 per cent or more who don’t report to the police."
She says there needs to be a culture change, violence against males included.
"We have to stop it, we have to work on prevention, early intervention and ongoing long-term support."
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