Use of Community Service in New Zealand

Abstract

1534 people who received a community service sentence during 1981 and 1982 were studied. Almost one in three of the people sentenced to community service were women, although only one in seven offenders are women. More Maoris (41%) were sentenced to community service than would be expected given that 33%1 of offenders are Maori. People given this sentence were mainly young, with over half of them (58%) under 25 and less than 10% over 40. Most people (91%) had pleaded guilty at the court apearance in which they received community service and most (78%) had been represented in court. Over half the offences (55%) for which people were sentenced to community service were property offences, with traffic offences (27%) the second most common group. The community service group had been convicted of the more serious offences amongst a police classified offence list. The average sentence length was 89 hours, with approximately a quarter of the group (24%) being given over 100 hours of community service. An additional sentence of probation, disqualification or fine was given to just over half (52%) of the group.