20th August 2018

Evidence released today shows that 56% of males over 18 who committed a serious violent crime, were raised in homes without a father present.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) has released the information on the day the Criminal Justice Summit is due to start.

SST Founder Garth McVicar, said the evidence was gathered from detailed analysis of 100 sentencing notes from 2017/2018 cases where the offender was male, over 18, and had committed a serious crime such as murder, manslaughter, rape or sexual abuse.

Garth said “The purpose of the research was to discover what, if any, common denominators were contributing factors in the lives of those who end up committing serious crimes.”

“We will now endeavour to carry out similar research amongst the entire prison population, but we don’t expect any significant difference. This data was compiled from 100 cases of sentencing notes and we expect it will reflect through the total of the prison population.”

McVicar said the release of the information was timely given that the Criminal Justice Summit was due to be opened by the Prime Minister later today.

Garth commented “Andrew Little is saying the Criminal Justice system is broken and what we have been doing for the last thirty years is not working. Well the evidence we have released today shows that thirty years of destroying the family has created a pipeline to prison."
"Mr Little says he wants to look at the drivers of crime and this research is evidence of what has gone wrong, and why we have such a high prison population, but will the Criminal Justice outcomes reflect this research and will Mr Little and his Ministers dare consider that reality.”

For a copy of the research please email garth@sst.org.nz

ENDS

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