Te Puna Haumaru Centre for Security and Crime Science

27/08/2026

We're so proud of our postgraduate students who presented their research at the New Zealand Psychological Society annual conference this week!

As part of the Institute of Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology symposium, Georgia Po***ck presented her honours research on police identification of controlling behaviours in reports for intimate partner violence 👮 and Zahra Rennie presented a study from her PhD research that identified patterns in protective, need, and responsivity factors among people in New Zealand prisons 🔎

In addition, Hayley Gibbons presented a poster about her honours research examining relationship-related differences in victims' perceptions of the severity of violent offences 💭

Thanks to the Institute of Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology and the New Zealand Psychological Society for providing this opportunity to share, connect, and learn from others in the field!

27/08/2026

11/08/2026

When natural disasters strike, how do we reduce the risk of family violence? A project by Dr Lisa Tompson from Te Puna Haumaru Centre for Security and Crime Science has recently been awarded funding for a project looking at that.

"Disasters can exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities linked to family violence. Increased stress, overcrowding, income disruption and breakdown of informal support networks create predictable risk conditions in the weeks and months following an event... This presents an opportunity for CDEM Waikato to lead nationally in embedding safety and wellbeing considerations within preparedness planning."

The funding of $27,500 comes through the CDEM Resilience Fund.

Read more here:https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/documents/resilience-fund/2026-27/2026-24-Application-signed.pdf
Photo: ccipeggy/Pixabay

Civil Defence Waikato

05/08/2026

Dr Linda Fatialofa from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington presented findings from her research exploring the circumstances that shape pathways into offending for young men in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Using Grounded Theory, the research examined the factors influencing offending behaviour, how participants understood their actions, and the complex interactions between individual experiences, relationships, and broader social contexts.

The findings informed the development of three descriptive models that were integrated into an overarching model of youth offending, highlighting the importance of centring young people's voices in theory development.

🎥 The seminar recording is now available to watch on our YouTube channel:

Dr Linda Fatialofa from Victoria University of Wellington presented...

23/07/2026

🚨 New paper alert!

Does stalking add unique value when assessing the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) recurrence?

In a new open-access study, Dr Jordan Tomkins, AProf Lisa Tompson, and Prof Devon Polaschek examined 1,126 IPV cases reported to New Zealand Police to determine whether partner stalking predicted IPV recurrence over a 12-month period. Stalking initially predicted any IPV recurrence, regardless of severity or type. However, once other commonly assessed risk factors were included in the model, stalking no longer made a statistically significant contribution to predicting recurrence.

These findings suggest that, while stalking is an indicator of risk, it may not require special status in predicting IPV recurrence because it often co-occurs with other established risk factors that provide stronger predictive value.

📖 Read the open-access article here👇
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08862605261463278

19/07/2026

This week Laura Adlam and Patrick Neilands from the Ministry of Justice NZ shared findings from the recently published report into youth victimisation and harm. 🔎

They discussed in-depth findings on the relationship between bullying, victimisation, and screen use, as well as the experiences of young people in state care.

A recording of this seminar is available on our YouTube channel:

Laura Adlam and Patrick Neilands from the Ministry of Justice prese...

14/07/2026

Last month Dr Apriel Jolliffe Simpson and Professor Richard Wortley travelled all the way to South Africa for the Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis conference. There, they presented talks about their recent research and had the chance to learn from and catch up with crime science colleagues from around the world. 🌍

The South African Wildlife College was a very special venue, with game drives replacing the traditional conference networking events 🦁

08/07/2026

Jasmin Fuller presented this seminar as part of the Institute of Cr...