Crimes Act 1961
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| Crimes Act | |
|---|---|
| |
| Passed | 1961 |
| Royal assent | 1 November 1961 |
| Commenced | 1 January 1962 |
| Status: Current legislation | |
The Crimes Act 1961 is an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand administered by the Ministry of Justice. The crimes Act deals with predominantly violent matters, leaving various other pieces of law to further legislate areas of law such as drug possesion and manufacturing.
Amendments and Failed Amendments
Until 1961, Section 14 of the Crimes Act 1961 allowed capital punishment in New Zealand. 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 opposition to abolish capital punishment within New Zealand, except for several hypothetical grounds.
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 anti-abortion movement over greater restriction, maintenance and complete decriminalisation of abortion.
The Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 amended the Crimes Act, allowing for consensual homosexual relationships between men.
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 solicting, living off the proceeds of sex work, brothel-keeping and managing sex workers.
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.
Sections 50 and 169 dealt with the so-called provocation defense which mitigated fatal assaults against women and gay men 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, acting under the advice of ACT MP David Garrett.
Section 123 of the Crimes Act deals with blasphemy. Unlike the United Kingdom, New Zealand has not yet abolished this moribund "offence." In practise, 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.
Section 144A of the Crimes Act deals with New Zealand pedophiles 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.
Section 204A outlaws female genital mutilation within New Zealand, while Section 204B deals with ancillary and related offences.
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
See also
- Abortion in New Zealand
- Capital punishment in New Zealand
- Euthanasia in New Zealand
- Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986
- Prostitution in New Zealand
- Crime in New Zealand
- Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004
- List of Statutes of New Zealand
External links
- Crimes Act 1961 - text of the Act