Revealed: THE COST OF CRIME

Crime doesn’t pay - but society certainly does

HAVE you ever wondered how much each crime costs the police and wider society?

Well it turns out certain criminal acts are far more expensive to deal with than others.

Every murder costs society an estimated £3.2m to deal with.

That’s compared to £39,360 for rape, £14,050 for violence with injury, and £11,320 for a robbery.

Vehicle theft costs an estimated

£10,290 each time, while criminal damage from an arson attack costs

£8,420 and a sexual offence - not including rape - costs £6,520.

On the other hand, a cyber crime (meaning a computer virus or unauthorised access to personal information) is relatively inexpensive costing society an estimated £550.

Theft from a vehicle costs an average £870, while criminal damage apart from arson costs £1,350.

The figures - published last year by the Home Office - includes costs incurred in anticipation of crime, for example the cost of burglar alarms, CCTV equipment and car alarms.

It also includes costs incurred as a consequence of crime - meaning things like stolen or damaged property, or the reduction in a victims quality of life.

It finally looked at costs in response to crime such as the cost to police and the criminal justice system.

The estimates of economic and social costs of crime are important because it allows police forces and government to target their crime reduction policies to areas that will benefit society the most.

Murder still comes out as the most expensive crime when looking at how much each costs the police specifically.

It costs officers an estimated £11,960 on average per homicide, followed by £6,360 for rape and £2,030 for vehicle theft.

Murder costs the criminal justice system a further £800,980 on average £318,240 of which is from the prison service.

The costs are based on crime figures from 2015/16 - meaning it is likely figures are even more expensive now thanks to inflation.

According to the latest crime statistics, police in England and Wales recorded 701 homicides in the year ending March 2019 - a 4% fall from the 728 recorded the previous year.

That decrease followed four year-onyear increases in the number of murders.