Political calls to crack down on crime are echoing in our media ahead of the upcoming election - not for the first time. Two seasoned journalists showed this was part of a pattern in a report on crime coverage which recommended new approaches. It was commissioned five years ago - but never saw the light of day.

This article somewhat misses the point about why people are so concerned about crime, in my view. We have recently had a number of high profile, very public, violent crimes in the last few months. Dairy robberies, ram raids, shootings in the middle of the CBD, motorists being beaten by dirt bikers.

It’s honestly unhelpful and insensitive to say “statistically speaking” when people are seeing this happen all around them.

The Wellington CBD, for example, is definitely less safe than a few years ago, with people getting aggressive with you for no reason. We also had a violent robbery of a jeweller’s shop quite recently as well.

  • flashmedallion
    4•11 months ago

    high profile, very public, violent crimes in the last few months.

    This is what the media chooses to show.

    If “statistically speaking” crime isn’t trending up, but it’s being sensationalised to the point that people feel like it is, what’s the actual issue?

    If you’re essentially saying here that the facts don’t matter if they contradict peoples feelings, shouldn’t we at least be looking into who is influencing peoples feelings in the first place and what they have to gain?

    • @bloop
      1•11 months ago

      The story you link literally says:

      “the varying ways to count and then interpret police data means it’s worth taking all claims about crime rates rising or falling with a pinch of salt”

      They go to great pains to point out that the data is not recorded consistently, so drawing any conclusions from it is fraught.