ABSTRACT
Cost of crime estimates are not within the sole purview of U.S. researchers. Indeed, both government agencies and academics around the world have prepared estimates of the monetary cost of crime. Independent estimates of the costs of crime have been made in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Poland, and the U.K., while coordinated costing exercises have been adopted in the Latin American and Caribbean region. In addition to these comprehensive national estimates of the cost of crime, there have been a few attempts to estimate the public’s willingness-to-pay for reductions in specific crimes outside the U.S. – including Argentina, Norway, Portugal, and the U.K. This Chapter scans the globe and reviews the most recent estimates of the cost of crime in each country. First, I review studies that attempt to estimate “bottom-up” estimates of the aggregate costs of crime within a specific country (or group of countries). Next, I examine estimates of the cost of individual crimes that were developed within their home countries. Finally, I review recent attempts to compare the cost of crime and violence globally by using a consistent methodology and data to allow for such comparisons.
