Criminal justice outcomes for cannabis use offences in New Zealand, 1991–2008

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 505-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Wilkins ◽  
Paul Sweetsur
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Cannabis Use

Public Attitudes Toward New Prisons in New Zealand and Deficit Narratives: A Quantitative Survey

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele N. Norris ◽  
Kalym Lipsey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Survey

The imprisonment rate in New Zealand ranks seventh among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Yet the imprisonment of Indigenous people is on par with the United States, which has the world’s highest incarceration rate. Almost 70% of the prison population in New Zealand is comprised of people racialized as non-White. In 2016, the National Government proposed to spend $2.5 billion over a 5-year period to build new prisons (1,500 prison beds) to accommodate a growing prison population. This study assessed public attitudes toward the need for more prisons and the equity of treatment of individuals within the criminal justice system. Findings from a 2016 and 2017 quantitative survey of 5,000 respondents each year revealed that roughly half of the respondents believed the proposed spending for new prisons to be extremely to somewhat necessary. A large proportion of respondents also believed Māori and Pākehā, if convicted of the same crime, are treated similarly within the criminal justice system. New Zealand scholars have critiqued news media coverage of contentious sociopolitical issues, such as crime and prisons, for employing tactics that have worked to construct a morally and culturally deficit “Other” while normalizing whiteness, rendering it invisible and raceless. This article concludes that this process masks racial disparities of individuals located within the criminal justice system and preserves the ideal that prisons are a normal function of the social landscape.

scholarly journals Judicial Discretion in Sentencing: A Justice System that is No Longer Just?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sean J. Mallett
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
Regional Disparity ◽  
Judicial Discretion ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Synthesis Approach

<p>One of the fundamental principles of the criminal law is consistency: like offenders must be treated alike. However, research has shown that when it comes to sentencing in New Zealand there is in fact substantial regional disparity in the penalty imposed on similarly situated offenders. The situation is unacceptable, and undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system. This paper will explore three different mechanisms for guiding judicial discretion in the pursuit of sentencing consistency. It will undertake an analysis of mandatory sentences and the ‘instinctive synthesis’ approach, both of which will be shown to be unsatisfactory. Instead, the paper will argue that the establishment of a Sentencing Council with a mandate to draft presumptively binding guidelines is the most appropriate way forward for New Zealand. This option finds the correct equilibrium between giving a judge sufficient discretion to tailor a sentence that is appropriate in the circumstances of the individual case, yet limiting discretion enough to achieve consistency between cases.</p>

scholarly journals Patterns of recreational cannabis use in Aotearoa-New Zealand and their consequences: evidence to inform voters in the 2020 referendum

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richie Poulton ◽  
Kirsten Robertson ◽  
Joseph Boden ◽  
John Horwood ◽  
Reremoana Theodore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

Golden Age of Psychodrama at Saint Elizabeths Hospital (1939–2004)

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-32
Author(s):  
Dale Richard Buchanan ◽  
David Franklin Swink
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Elizabeths Hospital

The Psychodrama Program at Saint Elizabeths Hospital (SEH) was founded by J. L. Moreno, MD, and contributed to the profession for 65 years. A strong case can be made that, next to the Moreno Institute, the SEH psychodrama program was the most influential center for psychodrama in the United States and the world. This article describes those contributions, including training 16% of all certified psychodramatists; enhancing and advancing the body of knowledge base through more than 50 peer-reviewed published articles or book chapters; pioneering the use of psychodrama in law enforcement and criminal justice; and its trainees making significant contributions to the theory and practice of psychodrama including but not limited to founding psychodrama in Australia and New Zealand.

scholarly journals Reducing Recidivism Not Rights: Rethinking Interior Architecture as a solution for New Zealand's failing prisons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Luuk Abernethy
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western World ◽  
Recidivism Rate ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Recidivism Rates

<p>This thesis argues that the design of the built environment of a prison can have a huge impact on lowering recidivism rates of prisoners in New Zealand. It proposes that this can be achieved through the development of a new health model/framework that facilitates positive relationships between families, prison staff and other inmates; supports spiritual, mental and physical health; equips inmates for participation to society upon release; and gives them a sense of identity. It further argues that this framework can then be applied to the design process to create a new precedent for prison design that effectively rehabilitates and reintegrates its inmates into society. The work of key architects, and theorists such as Hohensinn Architektur and Dominique Moran, have been analysed to help translate their successful designs and theories into a New Zealand model of correctional facility.  Prisons are institutions of deprivation and isolation. Marginalised by and separated from community, they are maintained by physical and psychological structures designed only to isolate. Imprisonment results in individuals embittered and hardened by the experience, who are likely to reoffend, and become lifelong participants in the criminal justice system. New Zealand’s prison population has been substantially increasing since the 1980s. The current imprisonment rate per population is the second highest in the Western World, second only to the United States. This increase is due to a combination of changes in political economy, an attitude of exclusion of minority groups by the criminal justice system and a rise in penal populism. New Zealand currently imprisons 212 people for every 100,000, and has a recidivism rate of 50 percent. Māori represent over 50 percent of our prison population, whilst only 15 percent of the overall New Zealand population. These statistics are self-evident; our prisons aren’t working. They are not successfully rehabilitating and reintegrating inmates into society.  This design-led research investigation offers a new process for prison design: one that strives to design for humans, humans of intrinsic moral worth. This is based on the premise that all people are capable of change and improvement; creating impactful change through design to the extremely high recidivism rates of inmates in New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals From Tough Justice to Smart on Crime

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Brooks
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the OECD. The current Labour prime minister and the most recent National prime minister have both expressed support for addressing the rate of imprisonment. Nonetheless, New Zealand’s prison population continues to grow and is forecast to continue growing. This article investigates Texas’s experience of criminal justice reform; in particular, how they achieved a bipartisan consensus in favour of reform. It then looks at what lessons Texas’s experience might offer New Zealand. Finally, it highlights shortcomings of the Texan approach and what these might mean for New Zealand.

scholarly journals Vote for justice: Should New Zealand Consider Binding Citizen-Initiated Referenda on Law and Order Policy?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lidewij Oosterhoff
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Theories

<p>This paper examines the origins, benefits and pitfalls of the Citizen Initiated Referenda Act 1993, focusing on the non-binding justice-based referendum question put to the public in 1999. Citizen Initiated Referenda find their roots within the ideas of public participation in government, or direct democracy. This paper examines the philosophical and political theories – both in favour and against direct democracy – in order to canvas opinions relating to political participation. This is used as a basis to assess whether New Zealand should consider holding binding referenda on criminal justice related issues.</p>

scholarly journals A kaupapa Māori analysis of the use of Māori cultural identity in the prison system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Riki Mihaere
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Prison System ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Status ◽  
Kaupapa Māori

<p>Māori are 15% of the New Zealand population, and yet are 45.3% of annual police apprehensions and 51% of the prison population. This status of Māori ‘over-representation’ in the criminal justice system has remained steady for the last 34 years. One principle explanation of this status is that Māori have limited access to a secure Māori cultural identity. As a result, criminal justice authorities, especially the Department of Corrections, have progressively focused policies and programmes towards the perceived Māori cultural related needs of Māori offenders and prisoners. This focus is undertaken not only to reduce rates of recidivism but also to provide culturally relevant environments for Māori prisoners and increased opportunities for successful rehabilitation.   The result is that New Zealand’s prison system now contains a number of unique strategies such as the Māori Therapeutic Programme, the New Life Akoranga Programme and Māori Focus Units. Despite these developments, there remains a dearth of clearly articulated descriptions of how, why or even if Māori cultural identity has a positive effect on reducing Māori offending and imprisonment. This thesis is designed to address this gap in the research.   The thesis pursues a kaupapa Māori methodology, using in-depth interviews with key Māori associated with the development of the theory, policy and practice of Māori cultural identity in the criminal justice system. This focus provides an opportunity for those Māori whose careers or, in some cases, life works have been dedicated to the development and implementation of cultural responses to crime to speak for themselves. This approach allows a full exploration of the underlying rationale and meaning of the Māori cultural identity policies and resultant programmes sprinkled throughout New Zealand’s system.  The thesis develops two key arguments. Firstly, despite strongly held criminal justice beliefs about the potential validity of Māori cultural identity in relation to reducing Māori offending and imprisonment, the broader context regarding the status of Māori as the most marginalised population in New Zealand is largely ignored. Rather than accepting that Māori offending is likely to be ignited by a broad array of socio-economic factors which are the result of generations of colonising Pākehā practices, the Correctional response has been to individualise Māori offending by focusing on the degree of Māori cultural identity inherent in specific Māori offenders. Secondly, that the authenticity of Māori cultural identity policies and programmes designed and delivered by Corrections is questionable. While the Department argues that Māori cultural identity nestles comfortably within western-based therapeutic programmes, professional Māori disagree. In their view, the Māori cultural identity programmes delivered in New Zealand’s prisons do not resemble Māori culture at all. Given these two arguments, the thesis questions whether the criminal justice use of Māori cultural identity is more a measure of official attempts to meet ‘Treaty’ obligations rather than a genuine effort to reduce Māori offending and imprisonment.</p>

scholarly journals An analysis of restorative justice and intimate partner violence policy and practice: professionals' perspectives and perceptions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Melissa L. Garber
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Policy And Practice

<p>This qualitative research project endeavoured to open up the conversation around RJ and IPV and highlight gaps in policy in order to give voice to an area in the RJ process that has, up to this point, been virtually silent. There were two overarching aims. The first was to identify the underlying practice assumptions and values evident in the New Zealand Ministry of Justice (MOJ) restorative justice (RJ) standards for family violence (FV) cases (MOJ, 2013). These would be viewed from the perspective of working with intimate partner violence (IPV) cases in particular. The intention was to compare these assumptions and values with RJ and IPV international theory and New Zealand practice. The second aim was to clarify the processes and criteria used to determine/assess IPV offender suitability and readiness for RJ, ascertain the ways in which these practices were theoretically justified, and to compare the implementation of practice to the explicit and implicit guidelines present in New Zealand policy. To these ends, a collection of 30 criminal justice professionals (judges, lawyers, police officers) and restorative justice facilitators involved in the referral and assessment process of IPV offenders participated in interviews in person, over the phone, or via Skype, which were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then subject to analysis in order to create a conceptual framework. The analysis identified 18 main themes that were grouped into four main categories: RJ IPV conceptualization, effective RJ IPV assessor qualities, IPV offender assessment for RJ suitability/readiness, and RJ IPV practice issues. These results were compared with policy and with the international literature in order to identify consistencies and inconsistencies and to discover where gaps in policy may become clarified. Results showed that a great deal of the policy was supported by the international literature, however there were several gaps and inconsistencies. Several issues were of interest – namely the lack of clarity in the framework of RJ for IPV (i.e. where does it sit in relation to the traditional criminal justice system, intervention vs. pathway vs. overarching framework), the timing of RJ assessment in terms of treatment and interventions, siloing of agencies, and funding/resourcing issues. A final question that arose for me during analysis was regarding the purpose and value of assessment in these cases. Rather than making a decision regarding suitability in order to exclude an IPV case from the RJ process, if the process was truly restorative, perhaps the outcome of an assessment of IPV offender/case suitability should, instead, be to determine what resources are necessary in order to support any IPV case through the RJ process.</p>

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