THE COST OF CRIME - The TaxPayers' Alliance

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ut instead work in or visit the area. Some areas may be affected by this issue more than others, particularly London. Fraud and other crimes where costs cannot be isolated There are a number of offences for which there are no good estimates of the average cost per crime. For example, of the £60 billion cost of crime that the Home Office estimated in 2000, £13.8 billion was the cost of fraud and forgery. However, no average cost per incident was presented. Even if such an estimate did exist the geographical location of a fraud may be somewhat meaningless if someone is defrauded by e-mail, post or telephone. For that reason fraud has been left out of our estimates along with other crimes such as motoring offences. This, combined with using reported crime figures, means that our estimates are a significant underestimate of the total cost of crime but it seems absolutely right to continue to err on the side of caution. London The City of London has been left out as, with a tiny resident population (less than 10,000), an independent police force and otherwise exceptional circumstances, comparisons between the City and other parts of the country are unlikely to be useful. The data for the Metropolitan Police is updated from the earlier TaxPayers’ Alliance report “The Cost of Crime in London” (published in April 2008). 10 The earlier report used 2006-07 data, the latest available at the time. Scotland Unfortunately, Scottish police forces break down crime in a quite different way to English forces. Attempting to translate Scottish crime statistics into English categories resulted in incredible statistics with the Scottish forces showing an unrealistically low amount of violence per person. Scotland has therefore been left out of this study. Calendar/Financial Year In order to get the most up to date information, with many forces yet to release their 2007-08 crime statistics, the calendar year of 2007 was studied. For Avon and Somerset Police, Derbyshire Constabulary, Hampshire Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police, this was not practical so 2007-08 figures were used instead. These forces are marked with a * in the tables. 10 The Cost of Crime in London’, The TaxPayers’ Alliance, April 2008 http://tpa.typepad.com/home/files/the_cost_of_crime_in_london.pdf 43 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA www.taxpayersalliance.com 0845 330 9554 (office hours) 07795 084 113 (media – 24 hours) 10
2. The cost of crime in each police force area Multiplying the number of crimes in each category by the estimate of the average cost per crime in that category provides an estimate of the total cost of recorded crime in different areas. Table A2 in the appendix shows the number of crimes in each area broken down by type, while table A3 shows the total cost of crime for each police force area. In order to assess the cost of crime per person we have to divide the total cost of crime for each force by its population. Each force covers a number of local authorities whose populations are taken from the Office for National Statistics 2006 mid-year estimates. More recent estimates were available for England but not for Wales and it seemed preferable to use comparable population figures. Table A4 in the appendix shows the area that each force covers and the relevant population estimate. The total cost of crime in each police force area can then be divided by the population in that area to establish the cost of crime per person. Table A5 in the appendix shows the cost of crime per person in each police force area. A summary of the results is presented below. Table 2 ranks the police forces by the total cost of crime per person and Figure 2 presents the information, including the cost of crime breakdown, in graphical form. Figure 3 maps the amount of crime across the country with areas with a high cost of crime per person shaded more darkly than those with a low cost of crime, from black to white. Those forces that did not provide data are shaded in blue. The figures show: Recorded crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland cost nearly £15 billion in 2007, equivalent to nearly £275 for every person. Violence against the person, including murder and serious assault, was responsible for the highest economic and social costs, at around £155 per person. Residents of Nottinghamshire suffered from the highest cost of crime, at £390 per person. It was closely followed by London, at £388 per person, though that could partly be due to a large number of visitors making London’s daytime and evening population significantly larger than the resident population. Humberside had the third highest cost at £380 per person. Many, predominantly rural, areas saw a far lower cost of crime. Crime cost £130 per resident in North Yorkshire, £186 per resident in Dyfed Powys and £194 per resident in Surrey. 43 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA www.taxpayersalliance.com 0845 330 9554 (office hours) 07795 084 113 (media – 24 hours) 11
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