Cost of Crime
Estimates from the Commercial Victimisation Survey put the direct cost of crime
at £780 million for retailers and £275 million for manufacturers.
However, recent estimates by the Home Office on the cost of crime put the figure
much higher at £9.1 billion for the commercial and public sectors combined. This figure
excludes the wider economic costs of crime, such as damage caused to business viability.
Within the commercial and public sectors, the highest costs per incident are for
theft of commercial vehicles and robbery or till snatches. The average cost of shop
theft is, by comparison, relatively low.
Average cost of crimes
|
Crime type
|
Average costs per incident (£)
|
|
Burglary not in a dwelling
Theft from a shop
Theft of commercial vehicles
Theft from commercial vehicles
Criminal damage to commercial property
Robbery or till snatches
|
2,700
100
9700
700
890
5,000
|
Source: S Brand & R Price, (2000) The economic and
social costs of crime, Home Office Research Series Paper 217, London, Home Office.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors217.pdf
Surveys show that crime costs vary depending on the business sector as well as
on the type of crime involved. For example:
the Commercial Victimisation Survey found the average loss per incident for
manufacturers was £690, compared to £95 for retailers.
In the Scottish Business Survey, the highest average costs were sustained in
the manufacturing sector, the lowest in the hotel and restaurant sector.
Among sectors covered by the Retail Crime Survey, grocery retailers incur the
greatest overall costs, followed by clothing outlets and mixed retail businesses.
Crime costs by retail sector
|
Survey category
|
Total crime loss (£m)
|
Total crime prevention (£m)
|
Total cost of crime (£m)
|
|
Booksellers, stationers and confectioners, tobacconists & newsagents
|
83.2
|
34.0
|
117.2
|
|
Clothing
|
290.7
|
82.4
|
373.1
|
|
DIY Hardware, china & fancy goods
|
53.0
|
29.7
|
82.7
|
|
Electrical gas and electrical hire
|
43.7
|
23.3
|
67.0
|
|
Footwear and leather goods
|
22.7
|
7.7
|
30.4
|
|
Furniture, textiles and carpets
|
60.8
|
19.6
|
80.4
|
|
Grocery retailers
|
478.3
|
164.5
|
642.8
|
|
Mixed retail businesses
|
308.1
|
91.2
|
399.3
|
|
Off-licences
|
30.0
|
9.6
|
39.6
|
|
Other food retailers
|
47.2
|
4.7
|
51.9
|
|
Other non-food
|
202.6
|
145.6
|
342.2
|
|
TOTAL RETAIL
|
1,620.3
|
612.3
|
2232.6
|
Source: Retail Crime Survey
Partnerships will want to take account of the relative cost of different crimes,
and how these bear on different sectors, in deciding their priorities and targeting
interventions.
Violence at work
Findings from the British Crime Survey show the economic costs of violence at work:
On average, victims of violence at work had 2.7 hours off work as a result
of each incident suffered in 1997. This equates to a total of some 3.3 million work
hours lost due to violence at work over the year
Estimates put the direct cost to society of violence at work in 1997 as in
the region of £62 million a year, Including medical costs and time off work.
However, the costs of workplace violence are not just economic.
Just under a half (46%) of assaults at work in 1997 resulted in some type of
injury to the victim almost one in ten causing the victim to see a doctor
Victims of threats were if anything slightly more affected emotionally than
victims of assaults
Source: Budd, T (1999) Violence at work: Findings from the British Crime Survey,
Home Office Occasional Paper www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/occ-violencework.pdf
Levels of concern
Given its scale and cost, it is not surprising that businesses, and others, view
crime with concern. Of those questioned by the Commercial Victimisation Survey
36% of manufacturing premises saw crime as a fairly or serious problem.
44% of retail premises cited crime as a fairly or serious problem.
Within that, levels of concern were found to vary according to location.
Most concern was expressed by retailers in purpose-built outdoor shopping precincts
and in built-up non-residential areas.
Among manufacturers, concern was highest in the north, and for those located in
town and city centres.
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