Digging out the facts on crime and punishment

Crime is set to be a big election year issue, with polls showing the public feels unsafe and the opposition claiming the government is 'soft' on offending. A pair of Herald journalists have tried to get to the truth behind the political jousting.Crime is set to be a big election year issue, with polls showing the public feels unsafe and the opposition claiming the government is 'soft' on offending. A pair of Herald journalists have tried to get to the truth behind the political jousting.On RNZ's Morning Report this week, Foodstuffs chief executive Chris Quin struck a sombre tone talking about what he called a "scary" rise in crime at the company's supermarkets."We've got a duty to keep customers and keep teams safe and when you see retail crime up 38 percent, serious assaults up 36 percent - and repeat offenders being responsible for over a third of retail crime, we absolutely have to acknowledge we have an issue," he said.Some people raised eyebrows at the timing. A day earlier Consumer NZ had hit out at the supermarket giants over allegations they're ripping customers off with "dodgy specials".But he's not the first to air his concerns about rising retail crime in recent weeks.The owners of Titirangi's only post shop, Shrikant and Aboli Bhave gave a series of media interviews in May, saying they were closing their doors after two decades in business over repeated burglaries.Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, interviewed straight after the pair on the AM Show, told Ryan Bridge their story was "heartbreaking". "I absolutely acknowledge the situation we're facing around retail crime with ram raids and aggravated robberies is utterly unacceptable," he said.Those ram raids dominated the headlines last year, with some media outlets reporting what they called a "youth crime spike" or "youth crime wave".The barrage of coverage seems to have had an influence on people's perceptions of crime.On Monday this week, the Herald reported the results of an exclusive poll which showed 67 percent of New Zealanders were more concerned about being a victim of crime than they were five years ago.Respondents were also asked what action they wanted to see to address crime.The largest number - 34 percent - wanted harsher prison sentences while 27 percent wanted more police.Only 4 percent wanted more social workers and other support, and 6 percent wanted a focus on rehabilitation rather than prison.This may be understandable given the real rise in headline-grabbing types of crimes like ram raids, but it doesn't always mesh with the data released by authorities…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details