5. Third-party costs

Crime affects victims most acutely, but it also affects family members, employers, and taxpayers to varying degrees (Cohen, The Costs of Crime and Justice 2005). For example, family members of crime victims may need to take time off work to take a victim to a doctor or look after the victim. They may need counselling to deal with their grief from losing a loved one. When an injured victim is off the job, employers may need to hire a replacement worker or pay workers overtime. Employees who are victims of a crime may come to work late, not come to work at all, or be distracted. All of these contribute to a decline in productivity. Another third-party cost is the cost for taxpayers, who help pay for crime prevention and criminal justice programs.

This report estimates the third-party costs as employers’ losses, operating costs for social services, loss of affection and enjoyment to the family, lost productivity or services of other people, and other costs (table 12). The loss of affection and enjoyment to the family is an intangible cost. The death of a family member or loved one can have a profound emotional effect on a person. For instance, a grieving person may develop mental health issues as a result of the loss (depression, anxiety, sleeping problems, and other mental health issues) (Lichtenthal, 2004; Biondi, 1996). The value representing the loss of affection and enjoyment to the family is used only for costing purposes. It does not imply that the loss of affection is “worth” this amount.

The methods for calculating third-party costs were developed by Hoddenbagh et al. (Hoddenbagh, Zhang, & McDonald, 2014), except for the calculations of traffic delays due to drinking and driving and other spending related to crime. Since it is not possible to divide the costs for traffic delays and other spending related to crime by sex, these costs are included in tables that are separate from other third-party-cost items. In 2014, the grand total of third-party costs was $2,225,857,801. This included total third-party costs (table 12), costs of traffic delays due to drinking and driving (table 13), and other spending related to crime (table 14).

Table 12. Third-party costs

Table 12. Third-party costs
Cost category or items Female Male Total
Employer losses
Administration costs $929,391 $297,493 $1,226,885
Tardiness and distraction costs $9,684,600 $5,065,219 $14,749,819
Lost wage spending $7,364,700 $3,003,647 $10,368,347
Lost additional output $7,562,165 $6,368,433 $13,930,598
Total employer losses $25,540,856.09 $14,734,792.42 $40,275,648.51
Social services operating costs
Victim services and compensation programs cost $335,324,243 $111,774,748 $447,098,990
Costs of shelter for victims $463,519,983 $0 $463,519,983
Crisis line cost $1,434,205 $547,125 $1,981,330
Total social services operating costs $800,278,430 $112,321,873 $912,600,303
Intangible costs
Loss of affection and enjoyment to family $23,562,715 $59,713,731 $83,276,446
Total intangible costs $23,562,715 $59,713,731 $83,276,446
Lost productivity/services of other people
Value of friends’/neighbours’/family members’ lost productivity $399,780,051 $375,433,567 $775,213,618
Value of co-workers’ lost productivity $75,552,868 $118,283,092 $193,835,959
Total lost productivity/services of others $475,332,919 $493,716,659 $969,049,578
Other costs
Funeral service costs $874,467 $2,216,115 $3,090,582
Family medical care costs $12,185 $30,879 $43,064
Family counselling costs $120,265 $304,782 $425,048
Total other costs $1,006,917 $2,551,777 $3,558,694
Total third-party costs $1,325,721,838 $683,038,831 $2,008,760,669

Table 13. Traffic delays due to drinking and driving

Table 13. Traffic delays due to drinking and driving
Per capita cost of traffic delays due to drinking and driving in 2008Footnote 46 $1.42
Per capita cost of traffic delays due to drinking and driving in 2014
(adjusted for inflation)		 $1.57
Population in Canada 2014Footnote 47 35,540,400
Costs of traffic delays due to drinking and driving
($1.57 x 35,540,400)		 $55,798,428

Table 14. Other spending related to crimeFootnote 48

Table 14. Other spending related to crime
Spending on countering crimeFootnote 49 $156,298,704
Reducing violence against Indigenous women and girls $5,000,000
Total of other spending related to crime $161,298,704

In 2014, female third parties bore 66.0% of total third-party costs whereas male third parties bore 34.0% (table 13).Footnote 50 Lost productivity or the services of other people accounted for 48.2% of the total third-party costs. Social services operating costs accounted for 45.4% of total third-party costs. Intangible costs – loss of affection and enjoyment to family – accounted for 4.1% of total third-party costs. Employer losses accounted for 2.0% of the total costs, and other costs, such as funeral services costs, family medical costs, and counselling costs, accounted for 0.2% of the total costs.