Introduction
Safety is fundamental to wellbeing: at their most extreme, violence and avoidable injuries threaten life itself. In other cases, they reduce quality of life for the victim and other people in a multitude of ways.
Both safety and security are important. Safety is freedom from physical or emotional harm, while security is freedom from the threat or fear of harm or danger. The desired outcomes recognise that threats come in many forms, ranging from deliberate violence to accidental injury.
Violence and injury corrode quality of life in many ways. Physical injury causes pain and incapacity, reducing victims' enjoyment of life and ability to do things that are important to them.
Property crime, such as burglary, also affects people's wellbeing. In addition to the direct losses associated with crime of this sort, evidence suggests the threat of burglary is a more significant worry for many people than the threat of violence.77
Psychological effects are often as important as the physical ones. Victims of violence or injury often retain emotional scars long after their physical wounds have healed. They may suffer from depression or face other mental health issues.
Crime affects not only individuals but also society as a whole. The victim's family and friends are likely to suffer grief and anger. They may have to care for someone who is temporarily or permanently incapacitated and may suffer from loss of livelihood. Crime and the fear of crime may also reduce social cohesion within communities.
Crime may restrict people's choices about how to live their lives. For example, they may avoid certain areas or avoid going out because of a fear of crime.
Costs to society as a whole range from the costs of hospital care and law enforcement to the loss of the victim's input to their work and community.
Children who grow up surrounded by violence may themselves become violent adults, perpetuating a negative cycle.
Indicators
Four indicators are used in this chapter. They are: child abuse and neglect, criminal victimisation, safety perceptions, and road casualties. The first three indicators combine to provide a picture of the level and impact of violence in the community. Together, the indicators directly address the question of how free New Zealanders may be from victimisation, abuse, violence and avoidable injury.
Child abuse and neglect, the first indicator, are major social problems. They cause physical and psychological harm which are often long-lasting. Child abuse figures are relevant to current levels of wellbeing and point to future social problems as well. 78 This indicator uses the proportion of children assessed as abused following notification to Child, Youth and Family, which is likely to underestimate the true level of violence against children. This under-reporting makes it difficult to interpret trends over time and also difficult to draw conclusions from trends; an increase in the rate of reported child abuse may in fact be positive if it reflects higher levels of awareness and reporting of abuse, rather than higher levels of abuse itself.
Measuring criminal victimisation is difficult, as many crimes are not reported to the Police. This is particularly true of burglary, domestic violence, and child abuse. The second indicator uses survey results to give a more comprehensive picture of the level of criminal victimisation in society, including the level of violence.
The third indicator is perceptions of safety. Feeling unsafe harms quality of life by producing anxiety and reducing people's options in life. However, there is some evidence that fear is often not linked to the actual risk of becoming a crime victim - for example, people may feel unsafe and have their quality of life reduced even when the actual likelihood of their being victimised is relatively small.
People should also be able to live in a society where they are free from the risk of avoidable death or injury. The leading cause of avoidable injury and death is motor vehicle crashes. In economic terms, the social cost of motor vehicle crashes has been estimated at $3.1 billion annually.79 The final indicator is road casualties.
