Steve Cullen: Criminal lawyer on convictions for crimes by people on bail rise

Belief attitudes towards bail is a reflection of a global decline in law and order.

Convictions for crimes carried out by someone on bail rose by almost 12-thousand between 2015 and 2024. 

Amongst these, homicide and related convictions more than doubled to 25.

Criminal lawyer Steve Cullen told Ryan Bridge a law-and-order decline stems from social media and leads to some not taking bail as seriously.

However, he says 80-percent of people who are on electronically monitored bail for example, are compliant. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got new numbers out this morning on crime while
on bail. Ministry of Justice figures show convictions jumped by
nearly twelve thousand between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty four.
Homicides doubled from ten to twenty five over that time,
with court backlogs taking up much of the blame. Steve Cullen,
criminal lawyer, with us this morning. Steve, good morning, Good morning.
So what is this telling us?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, the figures are a little bit confusing, to be honest,
there's been a ten year period. There's no doubt that
there are increases occurring in crimes, but then everything else
is going up as well. You'd want to be a
praised of the demographics of society. Are we getting an
increase in the proportion of youth? Are we getting an

(00:43):
increase in the proportion of young people before the courts?
Are there more gang members? We know that there are
more drug abusers. It's a concerning statistic, but in the
absence of more information, it's hard to derive any really
concrete decisions from it.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's a bit more context, doesn't it, Steve, What are
you seeing?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, certainly we're seeing that people are sometimes noncompliant with bail,
and they certainly do go on to commit further offending.
This release talks about fears that the offense is that
people are on bail go and commit somehow pertain to
existing victims. Well, I haven't seen any particular evidence of that.

(01:25):
They do go on to commit more offenses, but that's
just the nature of the beast. I'm afraid when they
deal with criminal law. The period they're talking about spans,
for example, the period when we had COVID, when we
had ram raids. What we are seeing, I think, in
my own view, is that there's been a bit of
a decline in respect for law and order and institutions.

(01:45):
But it seems to be worldwide. It's come through social media,
and it seems to be almost reflected in some of
the people's attitudes towards bail. Were there less of a
mind to take it seriously, but let's not forget over
eighty percent of people who are on electronically monitored bill
for example, are comply.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
If you get bail once and then stuff you'll bail up,
do you get bail again.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's not automatic. It needs a legitimate reason to explain
why there were difficulties with bail, and then the courts
would look at all the surrounding circumstances. It's not a
total prohibition, but it's most certainly taken into account in
later hearings. And yes, it will impact on your ability
to get bailed that you've breached to bail in the past.

(02:33):
And what's of even more important that if people are
on electronically monitored sentences and violate those, then there's a
higher likelihood that they're not going to receive a similar sentence.
Are in electronically monitored sentence when it comes to sentencing,
so they'll face imprisonment.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Well that makes sense to me, Steve. Thanks for that,
Steve Cullen Criminal word

Speaker 2 (02:54):
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