In May this year, the Ministry of Justice and Statistics NZ signed an agreement for data from the New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey (NZCASS) series to be deposited into Statistics NZ's Data Archive. The agreement also allows for the data to be made available to researchers through Statistics NZ's Data Laboratory.
Dr Melissa Smith, Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Justice, explains the NZCASS:
"The NZCASS asks people how safe they feel within their community, if they have been the victim of any crime in the past year, and if so, what the effects were. It also asks about any contact people had with Police or support agencies as a result of being a victim of crime."
"The survey is important to fully understand crime and how it affects victims, families and different communities. The information from the survey is used to better inform the work by justice sector agencies to create safer neighbourhoods and communities. Without the survey, there would be a big gap in the knowledge base on New Zealanders’ experiences of crime," says Melissa.
Digitally stored information is fragile and studies show that data can become lost or damaged in just a few years. Therefore it is important to store it well so that it can be available for future use. This is the aim of the Statistics New Zealand Data Archive. The standards and processes for the Data Archive are based on the Open Archival Information System model, which is an ISO standard used internationally.
The NZCASS is the first non-Statistics NZ survey to be stored in the Data Archive and will ensure the long-term preservation and future use of this data. Statistics NZ is currently working with other Government departments and Crown Agencies, with the aim of providing the same service for their data.
"The Data Archive agreement is an important step towards the development of a more complete and regular set of statistics on victimisation. The archive will preserve these datasets for future use and will provide a central point of access to unit record data for researchers," says Melissa.
For information about the Data Archive or if you would like some advice on digital preservation, please email data.archive@stats.govt.nz.