Costs of Crime in Canada, 2008

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Summary (cont'd)

Summary Table 1: Estimated Tangible Costs of Crime in Canada, 2008 ^a

Criminal Justice System Costs

Cost Category b	Costs $ (millions)	Main Data Sources
Police	$8,587	CCJS
Court	$672	CCJS
Prosecution	$528	CCJS
Legal aid	$373	CCJS
Corrections	$4,836
a. Adult Corrections	$3,869	CCJS
b. Youth Corrections	$967	CCJS
Criminal Code Review Board	$12	PT Review Boards
TOTAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM COSTS	$15,009

Victim Costs ^c

Cost Category b	Costs $ (millions)	Main Data Sources
Health Care	$1,443
a. Medical Attention from a Physician	$2	GSS 2004 d
b. Medical Attention at a Hospital	$63	GSS 2004 d
c. Hospitalization	$47	GSS 2004 d
d. Direct Health Care for Illicit Drug Users	$1,294	CCSA
e. Direct Health Care Due to Drinking and Driving	$37	Transport Canada
Productivity Losses	$6,734
a. Lost Wages	$971	GSS 2004 d
b. Lost Household Services	$382	GSS 2004 d
c. Lost School Days	$33	GSS 2004 d
d. Lost Child Care	$11	GSS 2004 d
e. Productivity Losses for Illicit Drug Users	$5,337	CCSA
Stolen/Damaged Property	$6,143
a. Property Stolen/Damaged Due to Property Crime	$5,777	GSS 2004 d
b. Property Damaged Due to Impaired Driving (Drugs)	$76	CCSA
c. Property Damaged Due to Drinking and Driving	$289	Transport Canada
TOTAL VICTIM COSTS	$14,320

Third-Party Costs

Cost Category b	Costs $ (millions)	Main Data Sources
Funeral and Burial Expenses	$4	CCJS
Other People Harmed/Threatened During the Incidents e	$102
a. Health Care	$65	GSS 2004 d
b. Productivities Losses	$37	GSS 2004 d
Lost Production/Services of Other People	$1,054
a. Lost Production/Services of Family Members	$375	GSS 2004 d
b. Lost Production/Services of Friends/Neighbours	$372	GSS 2004 d
c. Lost Production/Services of Co-workers	$259	GSS 2004 d
d. Traffic Delays Due to Drinking and Driving	$47	Transport Canada
Victim Services and Compensation Programs	$451	2008 VSS
Shelters for Victims	$254	2008 THS
Other Expenditures Related to Crime	$238
a. Law Enforcement	$115	Public Safety
b. Enhancing the Public Prosecution Service	$16	Finance Canada
c. National Crime Prevention Strategy	$34	Public Safety
d. Enhancing Federal Corrections System	$61	Finance Canada
TOTAL THIRD-PARTY COSTS	$2,091

TOTAL TANGIBLE COSTS $31,420

 

Summary Table 2: Estimated Intangible Costs of Crime in Canada, 2008^a

	Costs $ (millions)	Main Data Sources
Intangible Costsf
Pain and Suffering	$65,100	GSS 2004d
Loss of Life	$3,055	CCJS
TOTAL INTANGIBLE COSTS	$68,155

• a. Unless otherwise indicated, dollar amounts are in 2008 Canadian dollars.
• b. Offender costs such as lost legitimate income or lost productivity while the offenders are engaged in criminal activities or incarcerated in prison, injury or death to offenders and costs imposed on family members of offenders are not considered.
• c. Unless otherwise indicated, items included in victim costs refer to the costs associated with non-traffic and non-drug offences.
• d.All the cost estimations based on the General Social Survey (GSS) 2004 data may have been underestimated due to the choice of the weight in the Incident File. Each record of the Incident File can be thought of as representing a number of victimization incidents experienced by persons in the overall population. This number is given by the weighting factor WGHT_VIC. Usually there is a report for each victimization incident, but victimization incidents with very similar details are recorded on the same report. The number of incidents that the report represents is known as the series factor. To estimate the total number of incidents with a given characteristic, one would multiply WGHT_VIC by the series factor and sum over all records with the characteristic. However, as suggested by the GSS, another possible approach is to count those incidents in the same report as only one incident. Therefore, we use the weight variable WGHT_VIC, where the series factor is not taken into account.
• e. This group of people refers to those persons who were present at the incident in addition to the respondent of the GSS. As there was only one respondent for each interview recorded by the GSS 2004, all other people either harmed or threatened during the incidences were included in this group. The costs include heath care and lost productivity.
• f. Intangible costs do not include the costs to illegal drug users and victims of traffic offences.

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