Burglary
Reducing Burglary Initiative: an analysis of costs, benefits and cost effectiveness Reducing Burglary Initiative: an analysis of costs, benefits and cost effectiveness
This Home Office report builds on the findings of 3 teams to produce an economic evaluation of the Reducing Burglary Initiative (RBI) projects. The researchers explore the evidence that has been gathered on costs and benefits across the projects, review some of the limitations of the methods used, and make some suggestions about the direction in which the developing methodology can be pushed forward. Overall the analysis indicates the RBI is a cost efficient and intervention effective programme.
Title: Reducing Burglary Initiative: an analysis of costs, benefits and cost effectiveness
Author: Research Development and Statistics Directorate
Series: Home Office Online Report 43/04
Date published: July 2004
Number of pages: 37
Previous research on the impact of burglary reduction interventions has concentrated primarily on:
the effectiveness
(does an intervention reduce the number of burglaries?)
rather than:
cost-effectiveness
(which is the cheapest means of preventing a burglary?)cost-benefit analysis
(are the benefits from burglary reduction greater than the costs of the intervention?).
It is necessary to combine the study of the effectiveness of RBI interventions alongside an analysis of their costs.
The researchers were unable to draw strong conclusions about which type of burglary intervention is most beneficial from an economic standpoint, although they do identify project characteristics associated with more successful outcomes.
The RBI encouraged innovation and flexibility in the design of local projects. This approach has some beneficial features, but the lack of standard procedures for tackling burglary makes it difficult to compare projects.
Three teams of evaluators used different methodologies for estimating the scale of burglary reduction. They found that the RBI has benefited from the application of benefit-cost analysis, but that methods of comparing projects have not yet matured.
Measuring outcomes, costs and benefits
An intervention is not cost-effective simply because it 'works' through producing burglary reduction. An intervention that 'works' should not be implemented if a cheaper way can be found of delivering the same outcome. Cost benefit analysis will establish the most effective way to deliver crime reduction benefits.
The report gives a number of mathematical tools that can be used to calculate the cost effectiveness of interventions.
Conclusions
From the evidence available, the benefits generated by the projects implemented, in total, exceeded their costs.
There are also useful lessons to emerge:
the guidelines given to evaluators can be developed further in light of the methodological limitations that have been identified
the design of future major crime reduction investment programmes can be improved to help mitigate some of the difficulties in drawing inferences about the cost effectiveness of interventions
the 'premature evaluation' problem identified can be confronted directly and remedies developed to prevent the recurrence of systematic undervaluation of project benefits
a more systematic treatment of displacement and diffusion effects is needed to inform the identification of appropriate 'buffer' and 'reference' areas.
Download: Reducing Burglary Initiative: an analysis of costs, benefits and cost effectiveness 
PDF 203kb
Last update: Monday, July 21, 2008