Costs of Juvenile Crime in Urban Areas

Abstract

It is important to calculate the monetized social burden of crime, and a longitudinal perspective offers distinct advantages over studies limited to one year. This study assessed the monetary costs to society of self-reported male juvenile offending in urban areas. Previously published estimates of victim costs of a number of violent and property crimes were used to calculate the monetized social burden of criminal activity of a cohort of 503 boys (ages 7-17 years), comprising the youngest sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Conservatively estimated, the cohort caused a substantial burden of harm to society in the form of victimization costs, ranging from a low of $89 million to a high of $110 million. From an early age the cohort was responsible for substantial crime victim losses, with these losses mounting in the teen years. Importantly, it is argued that high crime costs do not themselves suggest a policy solution. Implications for policy and research are explored within this context.

Invited Address: James Joyce, Alice in Wonderland, the Rolling Stones, and Criminal Careers

“…Finally, in one of the only studies to be conducted internationally on the individual-level costs-of-crime issue, Piquero et al (2011b) merged the Cambridge male offending trajectory groups discussed earlier with individual-level offending and individual costs-of-crime data and found that the costs of high rate chronic offending was nearly two and a half to ten times greater than the costs of high adolescence peaked offending, very low rate chronic offending, and low adolescence peaked offending, respectively, and that a high rate chronic offender on average would exert a crime penalty of £1,494 ($2,381) per U.K. citizen. In sum, these and related (DeLisi and Gatling 2003; Welsh et al 2008) studies indicate that offending over the life-course incurs a considerable amount of economic and social costs and that these costs are differentially distributed across offending trajectories.…”

Cost of crime: A systematic review

“…The literature indicates that there are significant differences between adult and juvenile offenders (Richards, 2011) consequently, the finding of this review may not be generalizable to juvenile offenders. However, several studies have estimated the cost of juvenile crime Cohen & Piquero, 2009;Miller, Fisher & Cohen, 2001;Welsh, et al, 2008).…”

Neurobiology and the development of violence: common assumptions and controversies

“…For example, for the year 2000 alone, the total costs resulting from non-fatal injuries and death due to violence were more than $70 billion in the USA (Corso et al 2007). Research on the victim costs of crime shows that the victim costs of an average chronic juvenile offender committing crime between ages 7 and 17 amounts to about $1.25 million (based on self-reported delinquency; Welsh et al 2008).…”

“…Violence and serious property crime continue to lead to high levels of personal injury and financial damage for victims (Welsh et al 2008), and stimulate concerns for safety and increased costs for security, police and preventive efforts. For example, for the year 2000 alone, the total costs resulting from non-fatal injuries and death due to violence were more than $70 billion in the USA (Corso et al 2007).…”