Of that GB pound 34 billion, an estimated GB pound 18 billion was lost through the physical and emotional impact of crime on victims.
Over GB pound 2 billion was spent on health services as a result of crime, and GB pound 4 billion was lost due lost economic output.
The research was carried out using data including Home Office and British Crime Survey figures. It also shows that more than GB pound 1 billion worth of property was stolen and over GB pound 700 million worth of property damaged or destroyed due to criminal acts.
In direct response to crime, it emerges that the criminal justice system spent around GB pound 6 billion.
Massive impact of crime
Javed Khan, chief executive of Victim Support, commented: “These figures show the massive impact that crime has, yet all-too-often victims and witnesses feel marginalised by the criminal justice system.”
Khan continued: “The needs of victims and witnesses need to be placed firmly at the heart of the justice system. Justice minister Ken Clarke’s plans to cut reoffending need to succeed to reduce the huge cost of crime.”
Victim Support’s CEO went on to state that his organisation’s dedicated volunteers see the staggering human and financial cost of crime on a daily basis.
“Every year they deal with over a million victims and witnesses of crime, helping them to find the strength to cope and move on with their lives,” he explained, “but we want to do more and need people to make it their New Year’s resolution to invest either their time or money in Victim Support.”
Cost of crime in England and Wales
In 2000, the Home Office attempted to estimate the cost of crime to England and Wales in 1999-2000. This estimate of GB pound 60 billion included crime against individuals and households, commercial and public sector victimisation, fraud and forgery, traffic and monitoring/other non-notifiable offences.
The figure has long been regarded as being an underestimation of the real situation at play.
Over half of this cost – some GB pound 32 billion, to be precise – was made up of crime against individuals and households.
The Home Office updated this estimate for 2003-2004 to GB pound 36.2 billion, a decrease of 9% from the 2000 figures, after accounting for inflation and methodological improvements.
Victim Support has further updated this figure for 2009-2010 to approximately GB pound 34 billion.
Methodology for the research
Victim Support took the Home Office estimate of the cost of crime against individuals and households in 2003. This was then adjusted using the GDP deflator (as recorded by Her Majesty’s Treasury) to reflect inflation between 2003 and 2009.
There was also an adjustment made for changes in crime, using movements in crime as found in police recorded crime.
It’s important to note that there are many methodological issues in the original estimates made in 2000, and then again in 2003-2004. They should be regarded as estimates only.
It’s also important to note that this estimate uses the ‘multipliers’ (ie the method to compare police recorded crime with BCS crime) from 2003-2004, and therefore care should be taken when using this estimation.
Victim Support will endeavour to provide a further update by using updated multipliers in 2011.
Cost of crime against individuals and households
The cost of crime against individuals and households covers the following categories:
Study methodology: the components of cost
Costs in anticipation of crime
Costs as a consequence of crime
Costs in response to crime
These components (unit costs) are summed to give the average costs for each type of crime against individuals/households. Unit costs are weighted base on the probability of reporting.
Unit costs are then multiplied by the estimated number of offences to give total costs for each crime type.
All relevant crime types are then summed to give the total cost of crime.
