Financial Costs and benefits of Crime Prevention

Abstract

Traditionally, crime prevention researchers have attempted to answer the question 'what works with respect to controlling and/or reducing crime?' Examples of programs evaluated in this space include developmental, correctional and situational prevention. However, the question 'what is worthwhile?' is rarely addressed. This is an efficacy question and is becoming more prevalent in a discipline that is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary. In this chapter, we introduce the use of economic analysis (EA) and discuss the importance of addressing the efficacy question when evaluating crime prevention programs and assessing public and private security investment decisions. This is achieved by providing an overview of some selected studies that utilise the economic method, highlighting the differences between accounting and economic methods, and summarising various EA techniques. Finally, we introduce a simple method (using cost and outcome analysis [OA]) for conducting EA with respect to security investment decisions.