Less than half of New Zealanders had high levels of trust in the system
The most recent New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) features a new module seeking to provide insights into New Zealanders’ trust, confidence, and perceptions of fairness and efficacy in the country’s criminal justice system.
“There are many different factors that can affect people’s trust in the justice system,” said Andrew Kibblewhite, justice secretary, in a media release from the Ministry of Justice. “These can include people’s personal experience with the justice system, or what they’ve heard from whānau, friends and the media. Their trust in the government and public institutions more generally can also be a factor.”
Survey findings suggest that trust in New Zealand’s justice system may vary across groups. Moreover, most survey respondents expressed concern about crime across New Zealand, less so about crime within their neighbourhoods.
Key findings from the survey included the following:
45% had high trust in the justice system
78% had at least some trust in the system
Asians had higher than average trust in the system
Europeans, Māori, and members of the LGBTQ+ community had lower than average trust in the system
47% had high confidence in the system’s fairness
40% had high confidence in the system’s effectiveness
80% of adults were seriously concerned about burglary in the country
40% were seriously concerned about burglary in their own community
Those victimised by crime tended to rate the justice system lower in terms of fairness, effectiveness, and trustworthiness, the justice ministry noted. According to Kibblewhite, “whether or not a person has been the victim of a crime and their experience of reporting that crime or going through legal proceedings can influence how much trust they have in the criminal justice system.”
Kibblewhite called the survey’s findings “an invaluable yardstick” for the justice ministry.
“Strengthening people’s trust in the law underpins all the work of the Ministry of Justice,” Kibblewhite said. “That’s why these results, as well as future trends, are so important to us.”
The NZCVS is an annual national survey that has been conducted for seven years to date. The section on public perceptions, which debuted in this edition of the survey draws from information obtained in interviews with about 6,500 individuals between October 2023 and October 2024.
