David Farrar: Murder data

I read an overseas article that cross-tabulated homicide data by ethnicity for both the victim and the killer. I thought this was interesting, so asked for NZ equivalent data. Sadly it was declined on privacy grounds, but they did provide the data without the cross-tabulation.

For those interested the breakdown by ethnicity for homicide victims for the last ten years is:

1. Māori 35%
2. European 27%
3. Unknown 22%
4. Pacific 6.8%
5. Asian 3.5%
6. Indian 3.1%
7. Middle Eastern 1.5%
8. African 0.5%
9. Hispanic 0.1%
10. Fijian 0.1%

And the breakdown for homicide offenders is:

1. Māori 48%
2. European 30%
3. Unknown 1.4%
4. Pacific 15.0%
5. Asian 2.6%
6. Indian 2.9%
7. African 0.1%
8. Hispanic 0.1%

Note that if you kill multiple people, you get counted once for each death, so the European total include 50+ counts for Tarrant.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.