6. Conclusion
In 2014, the total tangible costs of crime in Canada were estimated at about $28.7 billion,Footnote 51 a per capita cost of $807 per year.Footnote 52 The costs of operating the Canadian criminal justice system in 2014 was estimated at just over $12.5 billion for policing, courts, prosecution, legal aid, correctional services (table 15) and Criminal Code Review Boards (table 16). Male accused/offenders were responsible for 80.8% (excluding Criminal Code review board costs) of criminal justice system costs, whereas female accused/offenders were responsible for 19.2% of the costs. Gender-based differences in costs were related to differences in the volume and nature of crimes committed by male and female offenders.
Historically, females have made up a much smaller%age of accused/offenders overall. For example, 23.7% of people accused of a crime (all Criminal Code violations (including traffic)) in 2015 were female. Females account for a slightly smaller proportion of those accused of violent crimes (22.5%) compared with non-violent crimes (24.2%). Females made up a very small proportion of some of the most serious violent crimes, including homicide (11.5%); sexual assault (all levels) (2.8%); and forcible confinement, kidnapping, or abductionFootnote 53 (9.5%) (Mahony, 2017).
A breakdown of the total criminal justice system costs by sector showed that policing services accounted for the majority of justice spending (67.0%), followed by corrections (23.1%), courts (3.9%), prosecutions (3.4%), legal aid (2.6%), and Criminal Code Review Boards (0.11%).
Table 15. Criminal justice system costsFootnote 54
| Cost category or item | Female | Male | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Police costs | $1,679,402,765 | $6,717,611,059 | $8,397,013,824 |
| Court costs | $103,530,512 | $385,136,629 | $488,667,141 |
| Prosecution costs | $84,932,390 | $344,269,148 | $429,201,538 |
| Legal aid costs | $63,428,845 | $257,075,113 | $320,503,958 |
| Total corrections costsFootnote 55 | $475,756,668 | $2,424,552,939 | $2,900,309,607 |
| Federal custody costs | $341,334,820 | $1,420,649,582 | $1,761,984,402 |
| Provincial custody costs | $89,329,970 | $843,663,979 | $932,993,949 |
| Conditional sentence costs | $11,704,041 | $35,547,131 | $47,251,172 |
| Probation costs | $33,387,838 | $124,692,247 | $158,080,085 |
| Total justice system costsFootnote 56 | $2,407,051,180 | $10,128,644,888 | $12,535,696,068 |
Table 16. Criminal Code Review Board costs, 2014
| Criminal Code Review Board costs, 2008Footnote 57 | $12,000,000 |
|---|---|
| Criminal Code Review Board costs, 2014 (adjusted for inflation) | $13,272,727 |
| Total Criminal Code Review Board spending | $13,272,727 |
In 2014, costs to direct victims of crime were about $14.0 billion (excluding intangible costs). These included medical costs, loss of productivity, and other costs (table 11). Productivity losses represented 94.2% of the total tangible victim costs, followed by other costs (3.6%) and medical care costs (2.3%).
In 2014, total costs for third parties were about $2.1 billion (excluding intangible costs). These included employers’ losses, social services operating costs, lost productivity/services of other people, and other costs (table 12), traffic delays due to drinking and driving (table 13), and other spending related to crime (table 14).
Intangible costs do not have a market price at which values are determined. Estimating these values is difficult since every victimization experience is different. Thus, the intangible effects each victim feels are different. Therefore, different methods are used to estimate the value of intangible impacts.
The current study estimates that total intangible costs were about $14.5 billion in 2014 (table 17). Because there were more female than male victims, female victims bore 65.1% of intangible costs and male victims bore 34.9% of the intangible costs.
Table 17. Intangible costs
| Cost category or items | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pain and suffering costs | $8,204,556,875 | $1,955,848,706 | $10,160,405,582 |
| Loss of life costs | $1,197,163,209 | $3,033,906,764 | $4,231,069,973 |
| Loss of affection and enjoyment to family | $23,562,715 | $59,713,731 | $83,276,446 |
| Total intangible costs | $9,425,282,800 | $5,049,469,201 | $14,474,752,001 |
Placing a monetary value on intangible costs may seem insensitive, but it is critical to estimating the costs of social phenomena. Intangible costs are very personal and affect victims acutely. By no means does this study imply that the effects of crime are “worth” the values assigned to them. They simply provide a standard way to compare the extents of different social issues. Without including intangible costs, these cost analyses would be inadequate.
Adding total intangible costs ($14.5 billion) to total tangible costs ($28.7 billion),Footnote 58 the total cost of crime in Canada was estimated at $43.2 billion in 2014. This cost is close to the total spending on economic affairsFootnote 59 ($44.2 billion)Footnote 60 by the provincial-territorial and local governmentsFootnote 61 in 2014. Notably, conservative estimates were used to avoid the effect of extreme values.
This study could not estimate many costs because various data were not available, or methodology not yet developed. Notably absent are costs incurred by offenders and their families, as well as the costs of the many social services that support them. The total cost of crime in Canada in 2014, even at over $43.2 billion, is therefore largely an underestimation.
Previous work by Justice Canada has estimated the costs of crime in Canada in other years (Zhang, Costs of Crime in Canada, 2008, 2011). The current report builds on this work, using newer data and improved methodology. However, given the differences in methodology, it is not possible to compare the results of this study to the previous work. Future studies will be required to measure and monitor changes in the costs of crime over time.
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