Crime is Big Business

It's getting hot, many of us are tired, weary and completely disillusioned. Our politics are completely broken and professionally we're all at sea again. So much seems to be going wrong domestically with public institutions and organisations that appeared to function pretty well now showing signs of failing. Public money is short, but wasted everywhere. Huge profits are made at public expense. Wrong decisions are taken, experience ignored but lessons are seemingly learned. There's fake news, misinformation, spin and dodgy statistics everywhere - and then along comes this from the MoJ - 'Economic and social costs of reoffending' :-

Executive summary 

The appraisal and evaluation of policies and interventions is a key part of the decision-making process in government. Assessing the costs and benefits of these allows evidence-based decisions that enable the government to use its limited budgets to best effect and to ensure interventions deliver value for money. 

This report therefore fills a key evidence gap by estimating the economic and social costs of reoffending in England & Wales. It can be used by policy makers to assess the value for money of interventions that aim to reduce reoffending. Furthermore, the analyses by reoffence group and index disposal provides a level of granularity which enables a firmer understanding of the potential impacts of policy decisions and the feasibility of future options compared to previous estimates. 

In 2018, the Home Office (HO) published an updated version of the economic and social costs of crime which has provided a valuable starting point to estimate the costs of reoffending. 

Cost estimates are based on a cohort of offenders that had either been released from custody or had received a caution or non-custodial conviction between January to December 2016, and who then went on to reoffend over a 12-month follow-up period, as defined in the proven reoffending official statistics.

These proven reoffences are counted from a cohort which spans offenders released from custody or who received a caution or non-custodial conviction (hereafter, known as the index disposal) in 2016. Reoffences, as counted in this report, could therefore take place from January 2016 to December 2017 but are only counted if they take place within a 12-month follow-up period from the index disposal. This is used to approximate the number of reoffences over a 12-month period. Therefore, it does not capture reoffending where reoffences occur over a longer period after the index disposal.

Estimates have subsequently been uplifted to 2017/18 prices by using a Gross Domestic Product deflator. 

Assumptions and limitations outlined in Section 3 of the report should be considered when interpreting the results. In particular, total costs of reoffending presented will be underestimates given that figures associated with certain offence groups represent partial costs only. Furthermore, the estimates do not capture reoffending where reoffences occur over a longer period after the index disposal. 

Main results, which are based on a cohort of offenders identified in 2016 who subsequently went on to reoffend over a 12-month follow-up period, show that: 

• The total estimated economic and social cost of reoffending was £18.1 billion. 
• The estimated economic and social cost of reoffending by adults was £16.7 billion. 
• Theft reoffences made up most of the estimated costs for adults compared to other offence groups, at £9.3 billion, followed by violence against the person reoffences, at £4.2 billion. 
• In terms of index disposal type, adult offenders who had previously received a court order7 or custodial sentence accounted for the largest portion of estimated costs, at £6.5 billion and £6.0 billion respectively. 
• The cost of reoffending by children and young people (i.e. those under the age of 18 at the time of entry into the cohort) was £1.5 billion, with theft comprising the largest portion compared to other offence groups, at £532 million. 
• Reoffences committed by children and young people who had previously received youth rehabilitation orders or first tier penalties as their index disposal type incurred most of the costs, at £510 million and £468 million respectively. 
• The cost of reoffences committed by adults who had previously received a custodial sentence of less than 12 months was £5.0 billion whilst those who had served a sentence of 12 months or more cost £1.0 billion. The cost difference is primarily driven by the greater number of offenders receiving shorter sentences compared to those receiving a longer sentence. The equivalent costs for reoffending by children and young people were £52 million and £22 million respectively.