By Wayne Henry, ContributorIN A letter to the Editor (Letter of the Day) appearing in The Gleaner, dated November 29, 2004, a 'Very Concerned Citizen' writes that "crime must become everybody's business," and is not only for the police and the government to seek to deal with. Among other things, the writer highlights the need for a study to be done in an attempt to calculate the annual cost of crime to the Jamaican society.
Undoubtedly, we face a crisis due to the high level of crime in the society. Of the various criminal offences against persons and property, the most disturbing aspect of crime must be the high murder rate. A Gleaner article appearing on September 10, 2004 reported the murder toll as at August 2004 as being 889. Since then, the official statistics as at mid-November 2004 has the murder toll at 1,228 (see Table 1). This averages to four persons being killed a day.
Of the various costs associated with crime, the most direct are the social costs (the impact on people's lives, particularly of murder, rape and other violent crimes). These are the most pronounced, due to the incomparably high value human life has relative to material things (property, goods, money).
ECONOMIC COSTS
Another type of costs is the economic costs of crime. These costs include what economists call opportunity costs, which arise when crime causes society to divert resources, including time and energy, from more productive uses. For example, when scarce medical resources are tied up treating both victims and perpetrators of crime, it represents a cost to the economy. Hospital bed space, availability of supplies, the time and energy of medical personnel are all resource factors in the cost of crime.
Similarly, the overburdening of resources in the legal and criminal justice system, including overcrowding in our penal system, imposes costs on the Jamaican economy. Crime costs also include lost economic opportunities due to crime. The reduction in businesses, services, facilities and job opportunities in high-crime areas are examples of such costs.
Many millions of dollars may have been lost as investors made silent decisions not to place their funds in specific areas of the Jamaican economy because of crime. Similarly, the economy may have lost millions of dollars in human resources, either lost as victims of crime, or lost opportunities as persons decide either to leave the country, or not to return to live and work here because of the crime rate.
While the economic costs of crime are evidently many, some are more difficult to ascertain and measure than others. It is almost impossible to assess the loss in creativity and innovation, and the overall breakdown in intellectual capacity that may result from the psychological and emotional trauma suffered by victims of crime, as well as their families and friends.
STUDY
There was a study conducted by University of the West Indies lecturers Harrison, Francis, Kirton and Gibbison (2002), on the economic cost of violent crime to the Jamaican economy. The study estimated this cost in 2001 to be $12.4 billion (approximately 3.7 per cent of GDP).
This estimate was derived by aggregating, among other things, the medical expenses incurred on crime-related injuries by both government and individuals, the loss of output arising from death and injury, the cost of security provision by public and private entities, and direct business losses of firms arising from crime such as extortion, theft, and fraud. They noted that this figure represented a lower-bound estimate of the cost to the society, as it did not include the more dynamic and long-term effects, such as the impact on investment and productivity.
It follows that this figure would be much higher now, given the increased rate of crime. The economic and social costs of crime to a society are significant. The 'law of large numbers' would suggest that, if unchecked, crime will inevitably and personally affect each of us. Coming from another 'very concerned citizen', crime 'must become everybody's business.'
Wayne Henry, Ph.D., is a
lecturer in the Department of Economics, UWI, Mona
campus. Email: wayne.henry
@uwimona.edu.jm
