Crime and Finance Link High

Times are tough. Talks are pivoting on budgets and spending. But there is one corner that is getting missed out – the link between crime and finance translates to high costs.

According to researches in Iowa the cost of one murder costs society a staggering $17.25 million.  Data from the states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas was taken covering the year 2003. The calculation was based on "victim costs, criminal justice system costs, lost productivity estimates for both the victim and the criminal, and estimates on the public’s resulting willingness to pay to prevent future violence". This desire to stop further escalation of violence is inclusive of collateral expenses like measures taken for security, insurance coverage and the welfare programmes of governments.

The cost of one rape is $448,532; of one robbery it is $335,733; of one provoked assault is $145,379 and for one burglary it is $41,288.

According to their calculations over 18,000 cases of homicide that was recorded by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention covering the year 2007 will approximately cost the nation $300 billion. It is roughly equal to how much America has spent for fighting a war in Afghanistan for 9 years. It is greater than the 2010 combined budgets for Departments of Education, HUD, Justice, Health and Human Services, Labor and Homeland Security. Obviously the problem is a grave one.

The good news is that the yearly rate of murder in America has dropped to a record low number. But it continues to be double that of other wealthy countries included in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The data has been provided by United Nations Office (Drugs and Crime). The murder rate in America is even higher than that of countries considered to be poor – Angola, Mozambique and Rwanda. In 2010 more disturbing signs are surfacing. In the mega cities of America like Chicago, Detroit, New York and Philadelphia the murder rates are sharply increasing.

Since the last 20 years the attitude towards the problem of crime has been mass imprisonment of millions and industrializing the system of criminal justice. During the previous quarter of a century the prison population has gone up four times. It is like running backwards and ruining human capital. A country cannot remain prosperous by pursing this line of policy.

The answer is improved educational opportunities and step up social services with more funds at their disposal. The choice before the nation is to spend a little for now instead of a lot later on.