Crimes Act 1961

For a list of Acts in other countries, see Crimes Act.

Crimes Act

New Zealand Parliament
An Act to consolidate and amend the Crimes Act 1908 and certain other enactments of the Parliament of New Zealand relating to crimes and other offences
Date of Royal Assent	1 November 1961
Date commenced	1 January 1962
Amendments
Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 Crimes Amendment Act (No 2) 2008
Related legislation
Criminal Procedure Act 2011 Sentencing Act 2002
Status: Current legislation

The Crimes Act 1961 is an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand that forms a leading part of the criminal law in New Zealand. It repeals the Crimes Act 1908, itself a successor of the Criminal Code Act 1893, and partially codifies the criminal law in New Zealand. Most crimes in New Zealand are created by the Crimes Act, but some are created elsewhere. All common law offences are abolished by section 9, as are all offences against Acts of the British Parliaments, but section 20 saves the old common law defences where they are not specifically altered.

The Act is administered by the Ministry of Justice.

Punishments (Part 2)

Section 14 of the Crimes Act 1961 allowed death sentences. However, due to growing general public opposition to the death penalty, reformist New Zealand National Party Minister of Justice Ralph Hanan and other National MPs exercised a conscience vote and voted with the abolitionist New Zealand Labour Party to forbid judges passing sentence of death other than in cases of treason. That was the functional abolition in New Zealand, with no one executed after this date. In 1989, the death penalty was formally abolished by the Fourth Labour Government.

Matters of justification or excuse (Part 3)

Includes infancy, insanity, compulsion, ignorance of law, sentence or process, arrest, use of force, breach of the peace, defence against assault, defence of property, peaceable entry, powers of discipline, surgical procedures, and other general provisions.

Sections 21 and 22 establish the defence of infancy. Children aged under 10 years old are assumed incapable of committing a crime and cannot be charged with any crime. Children aged between 10 and 13 years inclusive have the rebuttable presumption of incapacity to commit a crime; they cannot be charged unless the prosecution can prove the child knew what they were doing was a criminal offence.

Sections 50 and 169 dealt with the provocation defence which mitigated fatal assaults to the lesser charge and penalty due to manslaughter, rather than murder. It was abolished through multipartisan consent in 2009, with the exception of the ACT New Zealand party.

The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 abolished Section 59 of the Crimes Act, which had previously allowed parental corporal punishment of children, despite opposition from religious social conservatives and others.

Crimes against public order (Part 5)

Includes treason and other crimes against the Queen and the State; offence of oath to commit offence; unlawful assemblies, riots, and breaches of the peace; piracy; slave dealing; participation in criminal gang; and smuggling and trafficking in people.

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
73–75		Treason -- conspiracy or attempt	Life imprisonment (mandatory) 14 years
77		Mutiny	10 years
78		Espionage	14 years
79	1559	Sabotage	10 years
87	1313	Riot	2 years
92–94	1559	Piracy	14 years
98	0521	Dealing in slaves	14 years
98A		Participation in organised criminal group	10 years
98C		Smuggling migrants	20 years

Crimes affecting the administration of law and justice (Part 6)

Includes bribery and corruption; contravention of statute; misleading justice; and escapes and rescues

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
101		Bribery of judicial officer	7 years
102		Corruption and bribery of Minister of the Crown -- Ministers receiving bribes -- people giving bribes	14 years 7 years
103		Corruption and bribery of Member of Parliament	7 years
104	1542	Corruption and bribery of law enforcement officer	7 years
109	1561	Perjury	7 to 14 years
110	1561	False oaths	5 years
111	1561	False statements and declarations	3 years
119	1511	Breaking prison	7 years

Crimes against religion, morality and public welfare (Part 7)

Includes crimes against religion; crimes against morality and decency; sexual crimes; sexual offences outside New Zealand; and crimes against public welfare.

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
123		Blasphemy	1 year
128–128B	0311	Sexual violation (incl. rape)	20 years
129	0311	Attempted sexual violation, assault with intent to commit sexual violation	10 years
130	0311	Incest	10 years
131	0311	Sexual conduct with dependent family member -- sexual connection -- attempted sexual connection -- indecent act	7 years 7 years 3 years
131B	0321	Meeting young person following sexual grooming, etc.	7 years
132	0311	Sexual conduct with a child under 12 -- sexual connection -- attempted sexual connection -- indecent act	14 years 10 years 10 years
134	0311	Sexual conduct with a young person under 16 -- sexual connection -- attempted sexual connection -- indecent act	10 years 10 years 7 years
135	0312	Indecent assault	7 years
143	1325	Bestiality	7 years
144A		Sexual conduct with children and young people outside New Zealand	as per sections 132 and 134
144C	0321	Organising or promoting child sex tours	7 years
150		Misconduct in respect to human remains (illegal exhumation, necrophilia)	2 years

Section 123 of the Crimes Act deals with blasphemy. Unlike the United Kingdom, New Zealand has not abolished this offence. In practice, charges can only be brought through permission of the New Zealand Solicitor-General, which is usually not forthcoming, given modern religious pluralism and free speech sensibilities.

The Crimes Amendment Act (No 3) 1985 (commenced 1 February 1986) criminalised marital rape and added the offence of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, criminalising female-on-male sexual violation and expanding sexual violation to include anal and oral intercourse.

The Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 amended the Crimes Act, allowing for consensual homosexual relationships between men.

The Crimes Amendment Act 2005 (commenced 20 July 2005) changed made most sexual offences gender-neutral. This closed a legal loophole which prevented adult females from being convicted of sexual offending against boys under 16.

Section 144A of the Crimes Act deals with New Zealand citizens and ordinary residents that commit acts of child sexual abuse in overseas jurisdictions through child sex tourism. It applies existing prohibitions against sexual connection and indecent acts with children under twelve and young people to children within overseas jurisdictions. Under Section 144C, it is also illegal to promote child sex tourism overseas from New Zealand.

In 2003, the Prostitution Law Reform Act 2003 decriminalised sex work, removing sections 147-149A of the Crimes Act, which had formerly prohibited most forms of prostitution in New Zealand through maintaining criminal penalties against soliciting, living off the proceeds of sex work, brothel-keeping and managing sex workers.

Crimes against the person (Part 8)

Includes duties tending to the preservation of life; homicide; murder and manslaughter; abortion; assaults and injuries to the person; female genital mutilation; bigamy and feigned marriage; and abduction and kidnapping.

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
172	0111	Murder	Life imprisonment
173	0121	Attempt to murder	14 years
175	0100	Conspiracy to murder	10 years
177	0131	Manslaughter	Life imprisonment
178	0131	Infanticide	3 years
179	0131	Aiding and abetting suicide	14 years
182	0131	Killing unborn child	14 years
183	1695	Procuring abortion	14 years
188	0211, 0212	Wounding with intent	7 to 14 years
189	0211, 0212	Injuring with intent	5 to 10 years
192	0211, 0212	Aggravated assault	3 years
196	0213	Common assault	1 year
198	0299	Discharging firearm or doing dangerous act with intent	7 to 14 years
198A	0211, 0212	Using any firearm against law enforcement officer, etc.	10 to 17 years
198B	0211, 0212	Commission of crime with firearm	10 years
204A-204B		Female genital mutilation and ancillary offences	7 years
206	1329	Bigamy	2 to 14 years
208	0511	Abduction for purposes of marriage or sexual connection	14 years
209	0511	Kidnapping	14 years

The Sentencing Act 2002 changed the penalty for murder from mandatory life imprisonment to presumptive life imprisonment; sentencing judges now may waive the mandatory life imprisonment requirement and give a lesser sentence in exceptional ("manifestly unjust") circumstances.

There have been two attempts thus far to introduce regulated euthanasia in New Zealand through abolition of Section 179 of the Crimes Act 1961 and replacement with a liberalised regulatory regime, in 1995 and 2003. Both failed.

Section 187A of the Crimes Act was inserted in 1978. It provides access criteria for abortion in New Zealand and is the subject of perennial debates between the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (pro-choice) and the New Zealand right-to-life movement over greater restriction, maintenance and complete decriminalisation of abortion.

Section 204A outlaws female genital mutilation within New Zealand, while Section 204B deals with ancillary and related offences.

Crimes against rights of property (Part 10)

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
220–223	0811, 0813, 0821, 0823, 0829, 0991	Theft or stealing -- by persons in special relationship -- value $1001 or more -- value $501 to $1000 -- value up to $500	7 years 7 years 1 year 3 months
231	0711	Burglary	10 years
234	0612	Robbery	10 years
243	0831	Money laundering	5 to 7 years
250	0499	Damaging or interfering with computer system	7 to 10 years
256	0921, 0922	Forgery	3 to 10 years
266	0921	Counterfeiting	7 years
267	1211	Arson	7 to 14 years

Threatening, conspiring, and attempting to commit offences (Part 11)

Section(s) of Act	ANZSOC code	Offence	Maximum penalty (imprisonment)
306	0532	Threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm	7 years
310		Conspiring to commit offence (where not explicitly stated elsewhere)	7 years or the maximum imprisonment for the crime, whichever is less
312		Accessory after the fact to crime (where not explicitly stated elsewhere) -- to crimes punishable by life imprisonment -- to all other crimes	7 years 5 years or half the maximum imprisonment for the crime, whichever is less

External links

Crimes Act 1961 - text of the Act

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