MMECC

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MMECC
MAINSTREAMING METHODOLOGY FOR THE ESTIMATION OF
THE COSTS OF CRIME
Criminal Justice System Costs Debora Moolenaar -
WODC
Milan, 5th December 2008
MMECC is funded by the European Commission under
the Sixth Framework Programme
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Goal CJS Costs per offence
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
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Purpose Preferred Method
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples

• Annual costs
• Top-down approach
• Prevalence costs
• Total expenses/budget
• Cost effectiveness/benefit analysis
• Bottom-up approach
• Incidence costs
• Small effects marginal costs per product
• Large effects price per product

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Top-down ? Bottom-up
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Top-down
Crime type 1
Cost product 1
Crime type 2
Total costs
Cost share
Weights
Crime type 1
Cost product 2
Crime type 2
Bottom-up
Crime type 1
Cost product 1
Crime type 2
Price x volume
Total costs
Sum
Crime type 1
Cost product 2
Crime type 2
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Incidence ? Prevalence
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples

• Incidence costs
• Total costs of all incidents in one particular
  period
• Prevalence costs
• Periodical costs of all incidents

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Required Data
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples

• Volumes of all products by crime type
• Costs
• Total costs (top-down)
• Price per product (bottom-up)
• Marginal costs per product (bottom-up)
• Weights, indicating the difference in workload
  and/or capital investments between the identified
  products by crime type
• Discount rate
• Volumes of actual crime (and not just recorded
  crime!) by crime type
• Deflator

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Data Sources
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples

• Volumes of all products
• CJS organisation
• European Sourcebook
• National Statistical Office
• Eurostat
• UNODC
• Costs
• Government budget
• CJS organisation
• Weights
• CJS organisation
• Literature on other countries
• Discount rate
• Ministry of Finance
• Central Bank
• Volumes of actual crime
• (Inter)national Victim Surveys
• National Statistical Office
• Deflator

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Example 1 Bottom-up
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
First level court cases in the Netherlands Aggreva
ted theft and handling stolen goods
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Example 2 Top-Down
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Third level court cases in the Netherlands Aggreva
ted theft and handling stolen goods
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Example 3 Transferibility (1)
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Police time in Sweden
XXX
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Example 3 Transferibility (2)
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Police in the Netherlands criminal damage
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Example 4 Incidence ? Prevalence
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Prisons in the Netherlands Robbery
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Example 5 Calculating cost shares
Goal CJS Costs per offence Purpose Preferred
Method Top-down ? Bottom-up Incidence ?
Prevalence Required Data Data
Sources Examples
Prosecution in the Netherlands