Mental Health Care:Most of the research around the intersection of mental health costs and criminality focus on the cost for the offender, including therapy
Most of the research around the intersection of mental health costs and criminality focus on the cost for the offender, including therapy, to ensure they will not reoffend. In review of the literature, Wickramasekera et al. (2015) found only a few studies that included mental health issues as the cost of crime, but those who did, like Cohen and Miller (1998), estimated that between three million and five million people sought therapy after being a victim of crime. The estimated annual cost of the mental health effects of crime was $9.7 billion (at the time of the study). Note that the study was 20 years ago, and the number of victims and the cost of mental health care have increased substantially. According to Peterson, DeGue, Florence, and Lokey (2017), lifetime mental health costs for just rape victims will cost around $1.9 trillion. This is just one example of the mental healthcare costs associated with victimization.
Property Loss
Another cost is the recovery of property, whether it was stolen or broken as part of a crime. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an estimated $456 million in losses were attributed to robberies in 2010. Property crimes resulted in losses of $14.3 billion in 2015, with $4.9 billion from motor vehicle thefts (FBI, 2015). Larceny-theft average losses are approximately $1,000 per incident, with a total loss estimated to be around $5.3 billion. Burglary victims lost an estimated $3.6 billion in property, with the average incident costing around $2,300 (FBI, 2015). As previously discussed, the use of official data underestimates the financial impact of crime, so these effects could be much higher. Unfortunately, the recovery rate for stolen property is fairly low (28 percent), with cars having the highest recovery rate (54 percent). This means the vast majority of property that is stolen is never recovered.
Many people seek therapy or counseling after being a victim of crime. Image: Group Therapy Session. Authored by rudamese. Source: https://pixabay.com/en/relax-relaxation-hands-1276639/. License: CC-0