New Zealand Police Crime statistics are also available in Table Builder.
However, the Recorded Crime and the Conviction and Sentencing sets of data are not directly comparable. If comparing recorded, resolved, or offender apprehension crime figures with prosecution, conviction, or sentencing figures it is important to note:
- Not all offences recorded by police are resolved, and there are vastly different resolution rates by type of offence;
- Not all offences resolved by police result in a person being prosecuted in court. A person can be cautioned or warned, ordered to undergo some diversionary action, or attend a family group conference;
- The police figures and the court figures relate to different time periods. The court figures include all charges finalised in a year. The police figures include all offences within a given year, be it calendar or fiscal, as at a date 14 days following the end of that year.
- Agencies other than police may prosecute people (e.g. Customs Service, Ministry of Fisheries, the Serious Fraud Office etc). Justice data include both police and non-police prosecutions;
- Police crime figures in Table Builder exclude traffic offences, whereas Ministry of Justice data includes both traffic and non-traffic offences;
- Unlike the person-based court figures shown, police offender apprehensions do not count unique offenders.