Mainstreaming Methodology for Estimating Costs of Crime
Many individuals who have offended once go on to commit further offences, whether or not they have been caught and convicted. Cost of crime methodology can be applied to make estimates of the values of sequences of offences (or convictions). These estimates can in turn be used to estimate the value of preventing or reducing offending at different points in the life-cycle.
One illustration is the application to measures of the value of programmes that can identify and prevent young people choosing a life of crime. This involves using cost of crime estimates in conjunction with estimates of offending career profiles. An example is an update by Mark Cohen & Alex Piquero of an American study of the value of saving a high-risk youth.
As well as application to ‘whole careers of crime’ estimates of the costs of offences can be used to derive indicative costs of segments of criminal careers. This is an area where the work of criminologists on criminal careers, based on longitudinal study of offender cohorts, can be utilised by economists and policy analysts interested in comparing the costs and benefits of interventions to prevent repeat offending. See for example a British study of the cost of crime committed by young adults aged 18-24.
