Mainstreaming Methodology for Estimating Costs of Crime
Research into the costs of crime has been going on for a comparatively long time. Overviews of the history of this research can be found in (Czabanski 2008) and (Cohen 2005)). Estimates of the costs of crime in the U.S. date back to (Smith 1901) and the (National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement 1931), with an early review of the literature and methodologies by Gray (C. M. Gray 1979). While most of these studies have been conducted by academic researchers, much of the underlying data has been taken from government sources. For example, crime victimisation surveys that have been running for many years in the US and the UK collect data on out-of-pocket expenses arising from crime and a number of other relevant elements such as time off work and spending on measures to prevent crime such as locks.
A brief review of estimates in various countries follows:
US
Aside from the very early studies noted above, there have been a number of studies in the U.S. over the past 20+ years. (Phillips and Votey 1981) included some of the intangible costs of crime in their study. (Zedlewski 1985) estimated tangible costs. Further developments on intangible costs were instigated by (Cohen 1988a; Cohen 1988b), (Cohen 1994), and (Cohen 2004). (Cohen 1994) provided the first comprehensive cost of crime estimates that included criminal justice and prevention costs in addition to victim costs. While most of the Cohen et al. studies were government funded (and (Miller, Cohen et al. 1996) was published by the National Institute of Justice), the only official government studies have focused on the out-of-pocket victim losses (e.g. (Klaus 1994).
The cost of gun crimes was estimated by (Cook and Ludwig 2000) and (Ludwig 2001). The cost of drug abuse has also been studied extensively in the U.S. beginning with (Harwood 1998). These estimates have been updated by (Rice 1990), and the (Office of National Drug Control Policy 2004).
UK
The Home Office, beginning with (Brand and Price 2000), is the first country to begin a systematic, ongoing assessment of the costs of crime. It is also the first such assessment undertaken directly by a government agency. Further work on the same model has been done by (R. Dubourg et al. 2005). See also work commissioned by the Home Office on the costs of drug abuse (Godfrey, Eaton et al. 2002).
In parallel with the studies conducted by academic and government economists there have been many international, survey-based reports on crime against business conducted by private-sector (and other) organisations. Some of these developments are reviewed in section 10 below.
Other EU Countries
Research on the costs of crime in other EU Member States is sparse. An exception is France (Palle and Godefroy 1998; Palle 2000).
Australia
Analysts have estimated the cost of crime in Australia periodically: (Walker 1992), (Walker 1997) and (Mayhew 2003).
Canada
The tangible costs of violence against women (medical costs, lost wages, government programs, etc.) have been estimated by (Greaves 1995). Several studies have been conducted in Canada on the costs of crime that attempt to incorporate intangible victim losses as well as direct losses: (Welsh 1995), and (Brantingham and Easton 1998).
Latin America
The Inter-American Development Bank commissioned a series of studies in the late 1990s that estimated the cost of violence (including government expenditures and victim losses including intangibles) in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and El Salvador. See (Londoño 1997) for a summary. (Fundación Mexicana para la Salud 1997) estimated the costs in Mexico, while (Cruz 1998) estimated these costs in El Salvador. (Morrison and Orlando. 1999) studied the cost of domestic violence in Chile and Nicaragua by estimating lifetime earnings differential for victims. More recently, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) financed another study on the cost of violence in El Salvador (United Nations Development Program 2005). For a recent review see also the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU, 2007) reports the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as estimating the cost of crime in Central America to be 14.2% of GDP, including expenses for law enforcement, healthcare and social programmes, as well as lost foreign investment.
New Zealand
Following the model of (Brand and Price 2000), (Roper 2006) estimated the costs of crime in New Zealand.
