You’ve probably heard the phrase “Crime doesn’t pay,” but how much does it cost? That’s exactly what the RAND Corporation set out to understand when they conducted a new study on crime in America.
For their study, the team of researchers sought to understand the national average costs to taxpayers of prosecuting, defending and adjudicating seven major types of crimes. The study is interesting because we’ve all heard about the costs associated with housing a single prisoner, but this research looks at the taxpayer costs of catching a perp and taking them to trial.
Crime Costs
The study examined data from all 50 states collected by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. Here’s what they found.
- For every reported homicide, there was a cost to the judicial system of between $22,000 and $44,000.
- For rapes or sexual assaults, the cost was between $2,000 and $5,000.
- For robberies, it was between $600 and $1,300.
- For aggravated assaults, the total cost was between $800 and $2,100.
- For larceny crimes, it was between $300 and $600.
- For burglaries, the total cost to the judicial system was between $200 and $600.
- For motor vehicle thefts, the total cost was between $200 and $400.
Study authors said the costs can vary greatly based on the crime due to a number of factors, including how much time and effort attorneys and law clerks need to put into the charge. Lead study author Priscillia Hunt explained how some of those costs break down.
“[Preventing one theft] is the equivalent of freeing up: 30 minutes of a judge’s time, 3 hours of a prosecutor’s time, 3 hours of a public defender’s time, 5 hours of staff time (for court, prosecution, and public defense), and $100 of capital, supplies, and equipment,” said Hunt. “Crime prevention or reduction may allow judges, attorneys, their staff and others to transfer their time to other cases to the benefit of taxpayers and society as a whole.”
She added that the findings are important because they can allow city officials to really understand the true cost of certain crime prevention programs and better allocate appropriate funds.
“Programs that prevent crime can be expensive, but benefit everyone by freeing up limited resources in our criminal justice system,” said Hunt.”We hope this study will contribute to the dialogue over how to allocate scarce dollars, improve the efficiency of the criminal justice system, and pay for crime prevention programs.”
