By Tess Bartlett - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

across a multitude of family households in New Zealand, de­stabilised the strongsense of security that was established during the post­war period.The renewed emphasis on service sector industries also meant there was a rapid risein part­time employment, which provided lower incomes and less job security thanfull­time positions (Le Heron & Pawson, 1996). In 1961, the number of part­timeemployees was 43,950, whereas by March 1992 they numbered 311,400 (StatisticsNew Zealand, 1990). Part of the rise can be explained by women combiningpart­time work with unpaid work in the home (Department of Labour, 1954).However, the rise was also a result of employers cutting back on full­time work toeconomise (Statistics New Zealand, 1990). In this respect, large businesses were ableto survive by making employees redundant, leading ‘… to greater governmentalexpenditure in the form of increased benefits’ (Maitra, 1997: 36). This furtheraffected the ability of the state to meet its more general welfare requirements 14 . Thenature of employment in New Zealand had thus shown a marked shift from thepost­war years, adding to the sense of instability and insecurity, which governmentsseemed incapable of addressing.HeterogeneityDuring the 1980s and early 1990s, economic insecurity and the changing nature ofemployment meant citizens were increasingly feeling less secure (Kelsey, 1997;Pratt & Clark, 2005). At this stage, shifting social norms meant there was a declinein marriages, with couples choosing to live together without the legal sanction ofmarriage (Statistics New Zealand, 1996b). In 1999, for example, there were 21,085marriages registered, which was ‘22 percent lower than the post­war peak of 27,199in 1971, and lower than the number of marriages recorded in any year between 1965and 1991’ (Statistics New Zealand, 2001: Par. 2). Furthermore, the trend in divorcehas been upward since the late 1980s, with the divorce rate peaking in 1998 at 12.7per 1,000 existing marriages (Statistics New Zealand, 2001). This changing familyenvironment undermined social stability and security and was exacerbated by the14From 1991, the increase in redundancies saw the National government push for the de­indexing ofsuperannuation payments. Under New Zealand’s national superannuation scheme individuals over 60years (soon to become 65 years) received a set sum of money that was inflation indexed and paid atregular intervals for the rest of their lives. To cope with the growing pressures of climbingredundancies and economic insecurity, the National government brought the national superannuationfor a married couple down to 65 percent of their net average wage, and for a single individual this was33 percent (Thomson, 1996).33