June 30

June 30, 2005: Economic and Social Costs of Crime: New Report

A new study updates the original estimates of the costs of crime against individuals and households originally published by Brand and Price (2000) in Home Office Research Study 217. The new study estimates the total current cost of crime against individuals and households in 2003/04 was around £36.2bn.

The new report, titled “The Economic And Social Costs Of Crime Against Individuals And Households 2003/04” has been published as Home Office Online Report 30/05, and is available to download from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics website. The study includes the following key points:

The total current burden cost of crime against individuals and households in 2003/04 was around £36.2bn. This represents a 9% decrease from the estimated total cost in 2000 after accounting for inflation and methodological improvements. The fall in total crime has been partially offset by the change in the mix of crimes and increases in some unit cost estimates.
The revised estimates of the unit costs of crime against individuals and households exhibit a broadly a similar pattern to the costs estimated in 2000.
The most costly crimes are those with a large estimated emotional and physical impact; homicide, wounding, robbery and sexual offences are estimated to be the most costly crimes.
Serious wounding is seen to be less costly than previously estimated, while other wounding is more costly. The most costly violent crime is now estimated to be rape, which has increased significantly since 2000.
Violent crime and emotional and physical impacts of crime account for a large fraction of the total cost of crime against individuals and households.
Considerable uncertainty remains around any estimate of the total number of sexual offences, and the relationship between sexual offences and recorded sexual offences remains uncertain.
The prevention of one average homicide, wounding or sexual offence is estimated to be of significantly greater value to society than the prevention of one average burglary, theft or incident of vandalism.

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