[Daffy]

Hi All,

As well as this site I always check the NZ news sites, and it always seems to be bad news; murders, rapes, abuse, etc.........

I appreciate these are news worthy atricles, but is there a feeling that there is a lot of this going on in NZ?

Thanks

[marcia]

What do the headlines in your local newspapers say??

IMHO A high percentage if news is doom and gloom the world over, you have to put things into perspective and take everything as a whole!

[NannyOgg]

Daffy

Alas it is only bad news that make the headlines the world over and people are people wherever you live. But at least NZ only has 4 million of them as oppossed to the 65 million in the UK so it al down to percentages I guess


x

[Avalon]

Bit of both I think.

There IS some really bad stuff going on in NZ at the moment. And as far as the "damned statistics" go - there is a higher percentage of violent crime in NZ than in say the UK, if you take into account that there are only 4m people in NZ.

But it is worth bearing in mind that the papers here dont have a huge amount of World News. So the NZ news takes up a lot of space in the papers.

And the papers dont tell the whole story of life in NZ. Yes abuse and violence seems to be rife here, but there is hope that it will change. I wonder if we were to look back at the UK 50 odd years ago if we would see the same patterns? Not sure if its possible to find that out - its just something that has been occuring to me - will NZ "catch up" on making such violence utterly unacceptable.

[StevieD]

Good point Avalon. I remember seeing my mates leathered by a belt by their father, and it was commonplace to see kids bruised and battered coming in to school. It was also commonplace to see kids coming out of school battered and bruised, and it wasn't always the pupils who committed these acts. I once watched a teacher knock a boy out cold in the playground after a ball was kicked through the classroom window, and he was a priest!! We used to get hit with wood, straps, chisels (I kid you not, they were thrown to miss but often bounced off the bench and hit you) slippers, trainers.

It is not right, and as you say, NZ does seem to be lacking behind the rest of the world. But as Avalon says, let's hope that it catches up in this particular aspect pretty quickly.

[David with a dream]

Steve I think I went to your school :confused: I remember one day when I was 11 the woodwork teacher shouting so loud in my face I wet myself, may explain why I hate hanging doors now!.........David

[Diny]

Very interesting thread.

Avalon has hit the nail on the head.

NZ has it's fair share of crime and violence, like I have mentioned on many occasions, we are a country inhabited by the human race, therefore the same 'bad stuff' occurs here as everywhere else in the world inhabited by the human race.

Diny

[StevieD]

David - LOL!!

[ruthyroo]

Agree with the above - especially diny and avalon.

Just read a really depressing article in the local paper that listed many of the children that have been beaten, abused and murdered by their parents, step parents and caregivers in the past few years in NZ, as an adjunct to the ongoing furore over the Kahui twins deaths.

I think it would be wrong to think NZ is any worse that anywhere else, but it's certainly no better. For me it really highlights the poverty and deprivation that a lot of people in NZ live with daily, especially urban maori, and all the social consequences of dysfunctional families, several generations of poor parenting, frustration at the situation, no aspirations, drugs etc etc.

[K&CS]

With regard to the awful stories we're hearing at the moment about what actually happened to the Kahui twins, I read in the paper the other day, that NZ had something like the 3rd highest rate of child murder at the hands of the parents in the world (apologies if that statitstic isn't quite correct!) which was particularly shocking. There certainly is some pretty depressing news at the moment, although that is true the world over, I'm afraid.

[Carol]

Agree with the above - especially diny and avalon.


I think it would be wrong to think NZ is any worse that anywhere else, but it's certainly no better.


There is no way on this earth I would stay here if it was *no better*

The first school I worked in as a newly qualified teacher in the depths of Gateshead was so bad we had to have the kids playing out in two lots so they wouldnt all fight - the staff had to be on duty in 3's and the parents openly sold drugs in the playground. In my first week, a kid in my class threw up over the desk - his vomit was bright green - and the school was ram raided with a burning stolen car - they nicked a TV from the burning building.
Later in the year we did a production of Oliver and one of the kids in my class literally begged me for a pair of ripped shell suit bottoms that had been donated for costumes - because he had never had a pair. He said his mum would fix them.


emm......no - nothing here is as bad as that.


However - it is not a land free of crime and violence either.
But no - it is NOTHING like the area of the UK I come from.

[StevieD]

Carol - on a similar vein..... for you to feel sad about for your colleagues here.

School attacks (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17304883%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=scandal%2dof%2dattacks%2don%2dteachers-name_page.html)

[Carol]

terrible.........



And how the heck kids don't even feel an inkling of remorse when firing missiles at Fire FIghters and Ambulance Crews is simply beyond me.

[K&CS]

Carol, I'm probably being naive, but why was his vomit bright green??

Kate

[Carol]

Carol, I'm probably being naive, but why was his vomit bright green??

Kate


He'd had a full packet of "turn your tongue blue" sweets for breakfast.

Not sure why it ended up green though - maybe it reacted with the Coca Cola
:p

[coxy]

According to a UN survey NZ had the second highest total crimes per capita in the world:
total crime per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita)

But what does that actually tell you?
If you compare the UK and NZ, the UK has more murders per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita)

four times as many robberies per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rob_percap-crime-robberies-per-capita)

about the same number of assaults per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_ass_percap-crime-assaults-per-capita)

but about half as many rapes per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita)

and fewer burglaries per capita (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_bur_percap-crime-burglaries-per-capita)

So you have to trade an increase in some crimes for a decrease in others, and whether you think NZ is better or worse depends on which ones you think are more serious, and which ones you are likely to be exposed to. Do you want to live in a place with fewer murders and robberies but more rapes and burglaries....?

In the end, statistics are pretty meaningless, it is how you feel that matters, and a lot of the way that people feel about crime/safety is fed from the local/national press (who have their own agendas).

Answer to anxieties over crime: stop reading the papers, get to know your neighbours/community.

Keep safe people :nice1

(Just noticed the disclaimer at the bottom of those statistics:
" Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence. Per capita figures expressed per 1,000 population")

So maybe kiwis are just more inclined to report a crime than Brits. We had our car vandalised recently :mad: and didn't bother reporting it :roll

[Diny]

I think the best thing is to keep everything in perspective. I come from a VERY quiet, low crime, safe place in the UK so the 'level' of crime here in NZ is (to me) alarming.

I don't feel any safer here and I don't feel my children are any safer here, I can honestly say for me personally NZ is no better. But it's no worse either.

It really does depend on previous experiences and how we all feel as individuals.

Diny

[StevieD]

Spot on!

[ENZ]

The New Zealand government has said in the past that NZ compiles its crime statistics differently from most other countries - including the UK.

For example, if, in the course of a burglary, an offender assaults someone and then gets away in their car, New Zealand stats would record three separate crime incidents - the break-in, the assault and the car theft.

Apparently most other countries would record the event as a single crime incident.

This is what the NZ government says. I haven't checked it for myself.

[coxy]

According to this (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rep_to_pol-crime-reporting-to-police) kiwis are more likely to report crime.

[Avalon]

emm......no - nothing here is as bad as that.

2 Babies got murdered by someone in thier family.
:confused:

[Carol]

Yes - and how tragic and terrible is that.


And the fact the family refuse to talk makes it disgusting.

[NZsoon]

From my perception, NZ is alot safer than the U.S. The front page here everyday has AT LEAST 2 stories about someone being murdered, kidnapped, burglaries, etc. Do I feel safe? Yeah, because I am used to it. Its bad, and it is only going to get worse as the population grows.

Low crime is not the reason I want to move to NZ, but it is certainly an advantage. The reason is population. With the U.S. set to hit 300million this october, I want something more isolated from the world.

[willsken]

I want something more isolated from the world.

That just about sums up exactly how I feel! :)

[willsken]

UK - 5 week knife amnesty - 50,000 handed in. There was still 19 fatal stabbings in this period.

[StevieD]

Well, would the knuckle scrapers hand their weapons in? I think not. I get the impression it would be the village vicar who has a WW2 bayonet on his study wall or decent law abiding citizens who are likely to take heed of an amnesty. Knuckle scrpers probably can't even spell it, let alone know what it means///