The economic and social costs of crime

The costs of crime have become an increasingly important tool for decision-makers concerned with crime and its impact on society. They help make explicit judgements about the relative merits of alternative policies and programmes which are already implicit in decision-making about how to allocate resources to tackling crime – both overall and between different types of crime. However, the supply of good quality information on costs has not kept pace with the demand for it. This study takes the first steps to address this problem.

The Home Office Research Studies are reported on research undertaken by or on behalf of the Home Office of the British Government.

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