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Cost of Pain and Suffering from Crime in Canada

NCJ Number
210718
Author(s)
Ambrose Leung
Date Published
May 2004
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This report presents the findings from research conducted to assess the extent of crime induced pain and suffering in monetary terms in Canada.
Abstract
Early studies in the estimating of the cost of crime have omitted the cost of the pain and suffering of crime victims because of a lack of available information. This study attempts to estimate the cost of pain and suffering from crime in Canada, both overall and for specific categories of crime, specifically violent crimes, property crimes, and other crimes. It is proposed that an estimation of the cost of pain and suffering requires information on the number of incidents for each type of crime, the proportion of victims feeling worried about safety, and the value of the perceived and actual mental distress resulting from the crime experience. For this study, information on the number of crime incidents was obtained from official police statistics recorded in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the 1999 General Social Survey (GSS) on victimization. The estimated cost of pain and suffering from all crimes, based on nonfatal injuries, was $35.83 billion using the GSS data, compared to $9.83 billion using police-reported statistics. The estimated cost of pain and suffering from violent crimes, based on nonfatal injuries was $20.43 billion using the GSS and $5.84 billion using police reported statistics. References