Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at dynamic crime profiles in New Zealand starting in the 1950s but focusing particularly on the past 30 years, and to consider these profiles against other things that have been going on in society. It has different types of crime have risen and fallen in the last three decades or so, and that these have been differentially affected by changes in New Zealand's public environment. Some forms of crime have been impacted by social changes: the feminist movement, for example, altered attitudes towards sexual crime, domestic violence and the laws relating to them. It attempts to weave these social, political, economic, cultural and legal dynamics together in an effort to create an understanding of why different types of crime have risen, fallen or metamorphosed over time.