An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Violent Victimization in Canada, 2009
Results
See An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Violent Victimization in Canada, 2009: Technical Appendices (Hoddenbagh et al. 2013) for further details related to each cost item calculation.
Incident and Case Numbers
The two major data sources for crime incidents (the police-reported UCR2 and the self-reported GSS) show very different incident numbers due to the nature of each survey (see Data (p. 30) for a description of the data sources). Court and corrections numbers must be estimated using police-reported data, court-reported data, and corrections data.
Attrition pyramid
Chart G.1 illustrates the attrition in incident and case numbers from actual incidents and self-reported data to police data and court data. While it is natural that there are more self-reported incidents than incidents that are brought to the attention of the police, the large disparity between the two numbers supports the decision to use both police-reported and self-reported data sources in the costing context. The costs to the criminal justice system can then be based on police and courts data, while the costs to the victims and to third parties can more appropriately be based on the responses of the victims themselves.
Each level of Chart G.1 is calculated using different data sources and methods. All data in the chart are for non-spousal, adult victim crimes only. “Self-reported incidents” is a summation of assault, robbery, and sexual assault incident counts and criminal harassment victim counts in the self-reported GSS. “Police-reported incidents” is a summation of the incidents for all five crime types reported by police in the UCR2, obtained by a special request in order to specify the proper conditions (adult victims, non-spousal). “Incidents cleared by charge” is also a summation of requested police-reported UCR2 data. “Court cases” is an estimate calculated by applying the “rate of charges resulting in court cases” for all crimes (i.e., no conditions) from police data and court data to the number of incidents resulting in charges for non-spousal, adult victim crimes; this is a necessary method because court data is not available with the desired conditions. “Convictions” is also an estimate, and is calculated from the estimated “court cases” for non-spousal, adult victim cases, and the percentage of court cases resulting in convictions for all cases (i.e., no conditions).
The units of count for each source also differ: the self-reported GSS has incident counts, the police-reported UCR2 has both incident counts and charge counts, and the court-reported ACCS and YCS have case counts. The UCR Incident-Based survey: Research Data Centre User Manual notes some limitations for comparison and aggregation of crime statistics across data sources:
It is difficult to make comparisons between data reported by police and data from other sectors of the criminal justice system (i.e., courts and corrections). There is no single unit of count (i.e., incidents, offences, charges, cases or persons) which is defined consistently across the major sectors of the justice system. As well, charges actually laid can be different from the most serious offence by which incidents are categorized. In addition, the number and type of charges laid by police may change at the pre-court stage or during the court process. Time lags between the various stages of the justice process also make comparisons difficult.
— Statistics Canada (2013), p. 5.
Chart G.1 is modeled on a similar chart (specifically for sexual assault) published in Johnson (2012).
Chart G.1: Attrition pyramid for violent victimization in Canada, 2009
Text version of Chart G.1
A stacked pyramid chart illustrates the attrition in incident and case numbers for violent victimization in Canada. The numbers are derived from self-reported data, police data and court data. The pyramid chart is divided into six levels from bottom to top as follows: all incidents, self-reported incidents, police-reported incidents, incidents cleared by charge, court cases, and convictions. The figure indicates that the number of violent incidents and cases of non-spousal, adult victim crimes were represented by 2,792,110 self reported incidents; 259,066 police-reported incidents; 97,239 incidents cleared by charge, 57,599 court cases; and 35,028 convictions. The number of all incidents is unknown.
Source: GSS 2009; Statistics Canada, CCJS, special data request; Statistics Canada, CCJS, ACCS - Number of cases and charges by type of decision, CANSIM 252-0053; and Statistics Canada, CCJS, YCS - Number of cases and charges by type of decision, CANSIM 252-0064.
Note 1: Includes assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. The category of self-reported incidents excludes homicide.
Note 2: This chart is modeled on a similar chart published in Johnson (2012).
Self-reported and police-reported incidents
Chart G.2 shows the self-reported incident counts derived from the GSS. There were 541,202 incidents of assault against females, 877,592 against males, and 1,418,794 total; 62,575 incidents of robbery against females, 80,846 against males, and 143,421 total; and 382,066 incidents of sexual assault and other sexual offences against females, 179,741 against males, and 561,807 total. As criminal harassment is not included as a potential crime in the crime incident reports of the GSS, it is counted only by victim in this analysis (see Data for an explanation of how incidents and victims are counted in the GSS). There were 493,296 female criminal harassment victims, 174,792 male victims, and 668,088 total victims in the 2009 GSS. This data suggests that 62% of assaults were directed against males, 74% of criminal harassment victims were female, and 68% of sexual assault and other sexual offences incidents were directed against females.
Chart G.2: GSS (self-reported) incidents
Text version of Chart G.2
A clustered column bar chart compares the self-reported incident counts against female victims and male victims. The Y axis measures the number of self-reported incidents for each crime and increases in increments of 100,000 from 0 to 1,000,000. The X axis is divided into 4 crime types listed from left to right as follows: assault, criminal harassment (# of victims), robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. Among the four categories of crime, assaults represented the greatest number of self reported incidents; in particular, males reported incidents of assaults the greatest. The figure illustrates that there were 877,592 incidents of assault against males and 541,202 against females. More females reported incidents of sexual assault and other sexual offences. Sepecifically, females reported 382,066 incidents of sexual assault and other sexual offences, while men reported 179,741. There were 493,296 female criminal harassment victims in comparison to 174,792 male victims. Lastly, robbery was the least reported amongst both sexes. The chart shows that there were 62,575 incidents of robbery against females and 80,846 against males.
Source: Statistics Canada. 2005. 2011. GSS 2004, Cycle 18, Victimization, Main File: SEX(1,2), AGEGR5(≠1), WGHT_PER, STK_RELAT(≠2,3), STALKING(1). GSS 2009, Cycle 23, Victimization, Main File: SEX(1,2), AGEGR5(≠1), OCE_Q180(1), WGHT_PER; Incident File: MSCRIME(101,202,304), ADJWTVIC.
Chart G.3 illustrates the police-reported incident counts derived from the UCR2 (from a special CCJS data request). There were 67,083 incidents of assault against females, 92,944 against males, and 160,027 total; 37,001 incidents of criminal harassment against females, 32,741 against males, and 69,742 total; 83 incidents of homicide against females, 370 against males, and 453 total; 6,723 incidents of robbery against females, 13,344 against males, and 20,067 total; and 8,054 incidents of sexual assault and other sexual offences against females, 723 against males, and 8,777 total. The majority of assaults (58%), homicides (82%), and robberies (66%) were directed against male victims, while the majority of criminal harassment (53%) and sexual assault and other sexual offences incidents (92%) were directed against female victims.
Chart G.3: UCR2 (police-reported) incidents
Text version of Chart G.3
A clustered column bar chart compares the police-reported incident counts against females and males as obtained from the Uniform Crime Survey Report (UCR2). The Y axis measures the number of police-reported incidents for each crime type and increases in increments of 10,000 from 0 to 100,000. The X axis partitions 5 offences from left to right as follows: assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. The figure indicates that assaults represent the majority of police-reported incidents among both males and females while homicide represents the least police-reported incident counts. The figure illustrates that more males were victims of assault, homicide and robbery; whereas, more females were victims of criminal harassment, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. According to the police-reported incidents, there were 67,083 incidents of assault against females and 92,944 against males. Meanwhile, there were 37,001 incidents of criminal harassment against females and 32,741 against males; 83 incidents of homicide against females and 370 against males; 6,723 incidents of robbery against females and 13,344 against males; and lastly, 8,054 incidents of sexual assault and other sexual offences against females and 723 against males.
Source: Statistics Canada, CCJS, special data request.
Table G.2 further details the number of police-reported incidents by listing each specific offence separately. It also shows the severity weight of each offence, which is used in the derivation of the police cost per incident of each offence. CCJS generates severity weights to distinguish between the relative severities of offence types. Severity weight calculations are based on the sentences given in court for each offence type, so offences that are generally awarded more serious sentences will have a higher severity weight. To calculate police costs per incident, a measure of “total severity” is calculated for all offences, and the proportion of “total severity” that is attributable to each offence is multiplied by total police expenditures to get the police expenditures on each crime type. Dividing the police expenditures on each crime type by the number of incidents of each respective crime type gives the police costs per incident.
From the method just described it is clear that police costs are first estimated as totals for each offence type, and are then subsequently calculated per incident of each offence type. It may seem unnecessary to calculate police costs per incident if the total police costs for the offence are already estimated, but this is done in order to provide a way to exclude the spousal and youth victim incidents. Per incident costs can be multiplied by the number of non-spousal, adult victim incidents so as to include only these in the cost estimates.
| Offence | Severity weight Table note A | Police costs per incident Table note B | Number of incidents against femalesTable note C | Number of incidents against males Table note C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | ||||
| Assault – level 1 | 23 | $1,139 | 53,664 | 56,918 |
| Assault — level 2 — weapon or bodily harm | 77 | $3,761 | 10,362 | 24,681 |
| Assault — level 3 — aggravated | 405 | $19,677 | 519 | 2,150 |
| Assault against a police officer | 42 | $2,019 | 1,992 | 7,777 |
| Other assaults | 58 | $2,834 | 545 | 1,419 |
| Criminal harassment | ||||
| Criminal harassment | 45 | $2,205 | 9,806 | 3,608 |
| Uttering threats | 46 | $2,255 | 17,917 | 24,507 |
| Threatening or harassing phone calls | 17 | $843 | 9,278 | 4,626 |
| Homicide | ||||
| Murder – 1st degree | 7,042 | $342,224 | 53 | 158 |
| Murder – 2nd degree | 7,042 | $342,224 | 26 | 166 |
| Manslaughter | 1,822 | $88,526 | 4 | 46 |
| Robbery | ||||
| Robbery | 583 | $28,349 | 6,723 | 13,344 |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | ||||
| Sexual assault – level 1 | 211 | $10,253 | 7,565 | 648 |
| Sexual assault — level 2 — weapon or bodily harm | 678 | $32,967 | 170 | 25 |
| Sexual assault — level 3 — aggravated | 1,047 | $50,894 | 68 | 12 |
| Incest | 678 | $32,967 | 43 | 3 |
| Anal intercourse | 211 | $10,253 | 5 | 1 |
| Voyeurism | 86 | $4,156 | 168 | 26 |
| Other sexual violations | 296 | $14,391 | 35 | 8 |
Court cases and sentences
As court data cannot be specified by the relationship of the accused to the victim, the number of court cases must be estimated using UCR2, ACCS, and YCS data. Fiscal year information at the court stage has been converted into calendar year information. Chart G.4 displays the number of court cases for each crime by gender of victims.
Chart G.4: Court cases
Text version of Chart G.4
A clustered column bar chart depicts the number of court cases involving female victims and male victims. The Y axis measures the number of court cases for each offence type and increases in increments of 2,000 from 0 to 20,000. The X axis classifies 5 offences from left to right as follows: assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. The chart illustrates that assault offences represent the majority of court cases among both males and females. Moreover, female victims were highly represented in court cases for assault and criminal harassment. There were 18,307 court cases involving female victims of assault in comparison to 16,672 male victims of assault. Criminal harassment court cases were represented by 16,026 female victims compared to 9,133 male victims. Meanwhile, there were 25 female victims and 40 male victims for homicide court cases; 1,048 female victims and 1,618 male victims for robbery cases; and lastly, 1,797 female victims compared to 144 male victims of sexual assault and other sexual assault cases.
Source 1: CCJS special data request.
Source 2: Statistics Canada, CCJS, ACCS – Number of cases and charges by type of decision, CANSIM 252-0053
Source 3: Statistics Canada, CCJS, YCS – Number of cases and charges by type of decision, CANSIM 252-0064.
Court cases resulting in a finding of guilt will lead to sentencing. The sentence types of interest for the current study are custody (provincial and federal), conditional sentence, probation, and fine. Each offence type has different likelihoods of resulting in each sentence type. Table G.3 shows the sentence type proportions (using the most serious sentence) for each crime in cases with adult offenders (by gender), all crimes (i.e., spousal and non-spousal), and all victims (all ages). Table G.4 shows the same information for cases with youth offenders. These sentence proportions are then applied to the estimated court cases of non-spousal crimes with adult victims to get estimates of the number of offenders. One limitation with this method is that the offence type may actually change over the course of the justice system proceedings due to plea bargaining, and court data may therefore record different offence types than police data for the same incidents due to the Most Serious Offence (MSO) rule for recording offences.
The measures in Tables G.3 and G.4 must be calculated for all incidents and victims (i.e., no conditions) because the ACCS and YCS data do not include the age of the victim and do not distinguish between cases where the victim was in a spousal relationship with the accused and cases where the relationship was non-spousal. The results in these tables are later applied to the police and court-estimated data of non-spousal, adult victim incidents and cases to get estimates of sentences pertaining specifically to offenders of non-spousal, adult victim crimes. The method used to obtain the results in these tables is straightforward: for each crime type, the number of offenders sentenced to each type of sentence is divided by the total number of offenders sentenced to get the proportion that each sentence is given, with all cases included (i.e., no conditions) and separately for male and female offenders.
| Offence | Custody | Conditional sentence | Probation | Fine | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Assault | ||||||||||
| Major assault | 47.3% | 25.9% | 8.6% | 11.2% | 35.2% | 52.5% | 3.1% | 3.4% | 5.9% | 7.1% |
| Common assault | 16.0% | 6.3% | 3.2% | 2.0% | 68.2% | 73.1% | 3.6% | 4.3% | 8.9% | 14.4% |
| Criminal harassment | ||||||||||
| Criminal harassment | 28.1% | 11.6% | 5.0% | 5.8% | 61.6% | 74.5% | 0.8% | 0.2% | 4.6% | 7.9% |
| Uttering threats | 32.9% | 19.4% | 3.7% | 4.2% | 54.1% | 64.4% | 3.4% | 3.1% | 5.9% | 8.9% |
| Homicide | ||||||||||
| Homicide | 79.5% | 85.5% | 1.7% | 1.8% | 2.4% | 7.3% | 2.8% | 0.0% | 13.7% | 5.5% |
| Robbery | ||||||||||
| Robbery | 79.8% | 67.0% | 4.8% | 9.1% | 10.3% | 16.2% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 4.9% | 7.1% |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | ||||||||||
| Sexual assault | 56.2% | 33.3% | 12.5% | 21.2% | 21.4% | 43.9% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 9.5% | 1.5% |
| Other sexual offences | 64.4% | 56.3% | 5.3% | 2.7% | 19.8% | 18.8% | 2.5% | 7.1% | 8.1% | 15.2% |
Source: Statistics Canada, CCJS, ACCS – Guilty cases by most serious sentence, CANSIM 252-0057.
| Offence | Custody | Conditional sentence | Probation | Fine | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Assault | ||||||||||
| Major assault | 21.7% | 19.3% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 50.9% | 55.6% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 26.7% | 24.2% |
| Common assault | 7.6% | 4.0% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 55.8% | 56.4% | 1.5% | 1.0% | 35.0% | 38.5% |
| Criminal harassment | ||||||||||
| Criminal harassment | 1.9% | 7.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 61.5% | 76.3% | 1.6% | 0.0% | 34.9% | 16.3% |
| Uttering threats | 14.9% | 12.6% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 60.3% | 61.1% | 0.8% | 0.3% | 23.9% | 26.0% |
| Homicide | ||||||||||
| Homicide | 32.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 61.6% | 100.0% |
| Robbery | ||||||||||
| Robbery | 39.5% | 27.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 36.8% | 45.5% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 23.6% | 27.3% |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | ||||||||||
| Sexual assault | 15.6% | 21.9% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 57.0% | 55.6% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 27.2% | 22.5% |
| Other sexual offences | 10.1% | 9.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 62.2% | 54.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 27.7% | 36.6% |
Source: Statistics Canada. CCJS, YCS – Guilty cases by most serious sentence, CANSIM 252-0068.
Costs
The total costs of violent victimization in Canada in 2009 (for assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences) where the victim was an adult (18 and up) and the relationship between the victim and offender was non-spousal were $12,682,992,307.
Overall costs
Table G.5 presents an overall summary of costs by crime category, and Table G.6 presents an overall summary of costs by cost category.
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Criminal justice system costs | $224,008,173 | $333,028,499 | $557,036,672 |
| Total Justice system costs | $224,008,173 | $333,028,499 | $557,036,672 |
| Victim costs | |||
| Medical costs | $64,869,527 | $39,852,413 | $104,721,940 |
| Lost productivity | $173,222,452 | $172,601,470 | $345,823,922 |
| Intangible costs | $350,108,996 | $687,974,515 | $1,038,083,511 |
| Other costs | $1,679,936 | $4,717,205 | $6,397,141 |
| Total Victim costs | $589,880,912 | $905,145,603 | $1,495,026,515 |
| Third-party costs | |||
| Employer losses | $11,764,694 | $6,920,336 | $18,685,030 |
| Social services operating costs | $14,482,078 | $3,450,860 | $17,932,938 |
| Total Third-party costs | $26,246,772 | $10,371,197 | $36,617,969 |
| Total Assault | $840,135,857 | $1,248,545,299 | $2,088,681,156 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Criminal justice system costs | $156,532,189 | $119,114,118 | $275,646,307 |
| Civil justice system costs | $3,503,935 | $423,801 | $3,927,735 |
| Total Justice system costs | $160,036,124 | $119,537,918 | $279,574,042 |
| Justice system costs | |||
| Medical costs | $60,794,438 | $12,087,013 | $72,881,451 |
| Other costs | $90,047,177 | $30,309,464 | $120,356,641 |
| Total Victim costs | $150,841,616 | $42,396,476 | $193,238,092 |
| Total Criminal Harassment | $310,877,739 | $161,934,394 | $472,812,134 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Criminal Justice system costs | $33,193,046 | $138,375,464 | $171,568,510 |
| Total Justice system costs | $33,193,046 | $138,375,464 | $171,568,510 |
| Victim costs | |||
| Medical costs | $494,445 | $3,312,184 | $3,806,629 |
| Intangible costs | $628,253,405 | $2,830,835,929 | $3,459,089,333 |
| Total Victim costs | $628,747,850 | $2,834,148,113 | $3,462,895,962 |
| Third-party costs | |||
| Social services operating costs | $882,081 | $2,480,852 | $3,362,932 |
| Intangible costs | $12,558,750 | $56,588,250 | $69,147,000 |
| Other costs | $465,592 | $2,098,050 | $2,563,643 |
| Total Homicide | $675,847,318 | $3,033,690,729 | $3,709,538,047 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Criminal Justice system costs | $249,278,137 | $463,584,107 | $712,862,245 |
| Total Justice system costs | $249,278,137 | $463,584,107 | $712,862,245 |
| Victim costs | |||
| Medical costs | $24,006,280 | $6,601,236 | $30,607,516 |
| Lost productivity | $76,190,058 | $85,437,553 | $161,627,612 |
| Intangible costs | $250,778,892 | $300,575,966 | $551,354,858 |
| Other costs | $31,362,523 | $95,538,942 | $126,901,466 |
| Total Victim costs | $382,337,754 | $488,153,697 | $870,491,451 |
| Third-party costs | |||
| Employer losses | $4,679,644 | $3,684,526 | $8,364,170 |
| Social services operating costs | $3,141,049 | $509,228 | $3,650,277 |
| Total Third-party costs | $7,820,693 | $4,193,754 | $12,014,447 |
| Total Robbery | $639,436,585 | $955,931,559 | $1,595,368,143 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Criminal justice system costs | $137,693,965 | $12,355,133 | $150,049,098 |
| Total Justice system costs | $137,693,965 | $12,355,133 | $150,049,098 |
| Victim costs | |||
| Medical costs | $64,133,011 | $48,988,297 | $113,121,308 |
| Lost productivity | $210,169,873 | $676,900 | $210,846,773 |
| Intangible costs | $3,140,618,999 | $1,151,014,152 | $4,291,633,150 |
| Other costs | $576,966 | $0 | $576,966 |
| Total Victim costs | $3,415,498,849 | $1,200,679,349 | $4,616,178,197 |
| Third-party costs | |||
| Employer losses | $8,872,446 | $9,555,258 | $18,427,704 |
| Social services operating costs | $26,208,747 | $5,729,081 | $31,937,827 |
| Third-party costs | $35,081,192 | $15,284,339 | $50,365,531 |
| Total Sexual assault and other sexual offences | $3,588,274,006 | $1,228,318,820 | $4,816,592,826 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | $840,135,857 | $1,248,545,299 | $2,088,681,156 |
| Criminal Harassment | $310,877,739 | $161,934,394 | $472,812,134 |
| Homicide | $675,847,318 | $3,033,690,729 | $3,709,538,047 |
| Robbery | $639,436,585 | $955,931,559 | $1,595,368,143 |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | $3,588,274,006 | $1,228,318,820 | $4,816,592,826 |
| Total Costs | $6,054,571,506 | $6,628,420,801 | $12,682,992,307 |
Note: Categories in bolded font are summations of the cost items listed under those categories.
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | |||
| Police costs | $492,970,120 | $788,430,048 | $1,281,400,168 |
| Court costs | $62,369,269 | $46,694,089 | $109,063,358 |
| Prosecution costs | $42,384,179 | $31,654,687 | $74,038,866 |
| Legal aid costs | $30,048,268 | $22,441,593 | $52,489,861 |
| Corrections costs | $172,933,674 | $177,236,905 | $350,170,579 |
| Total Criminal justice system costs | $800,705,511 | $1,066,457,321 | $1,867,162,832 |
| Civil Justice system costs | |||
| Restraining or protective order costs | $3,503,935 | $423,801 | $3,927,735 |
| Total Civil justice system costs | $3,503,935 | $423,801 | $3,927,735 |
| Total Justice system costs | $804,209,445 | $1,066,881,122 | $1,871,090,567 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical costs | |||
| Initial health care costs | $17,932,125 | $22,425,498 | $40,357,622 |
| Long-term health care costs | $191,396,276 | $87,937,205 | $279,333,482 |
| Costs of suicide attempts | $4,969,301 | $478,439 | $5,447,740 |
| Medical costs | $214,297,702 | $110,841,142 | $325,138,844 |
| Lost Productivity | |||
| Lost current income | $172,551,974 | $112,708,513 | $285,260,487 |
| Lost household services | $13,917,456 | $3,159,170 | $17,076,626 |
| Lost education | $7,611,753 | $2,377,031 | $9,988,785 |
| Lost child care services | $3,232,687 | $651,927 | $3,884,614 |
| Lost future income | $262,268,513 | $139,819,282 | $402,087,795 |
| Total Lost productivity | $459,582,384 | $258,715,923 | $718,298,307 |
| Intangible Costs | |||
| Pain and suffering costs | $3,741,506,888 | $2,139,564,632 | $5,881,071,520 |
| Loss of life costs | $628,253,405 | $2,830,835,929 | $3,459,089,333 |
| Total Intangible costs | $4,369,760,292 | $4,970,400,561 | $9,340,160,853 |
| Other Costs | |||
| Stolen, damaged, or destroyed property costs | $46,277,170 | $107,658,680 | $153,935,850 |
| Special phone feature costs | $21,725,622 | $4,518,872 | $26,244,493 |
| Moving and change of address costs | $52,865,435 | $17,575,348 | $70,440,783 |
| Burglar alarm installation costs | $2,798,376 | $812,711 | $3,611,087 |
| Total Other costs | $123,666,603 | $130,565,611 | $254,232,214 |
| Total Victim costs | $5,167,306,980 | $5,470,523,237 | $10,637,830,217 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer losses | |||
| Administration costs | $9,573,573 | $4,849,286 | $14,422,859 |
| Tardiness and distraction costs | $6,770,508 | $9,449,992 | $16,220,500 |
| Lost additional output | $8,972,703 | $5,860,843 | $14,833,545 |
| Total Employer losses | $25,316,784 | $20,160,120 | $45,476,904 |
| Social Services Operating losses | |||
| Victim services costs | $42,688,675 | $11,425,541 | $54,114,216 |
| Crisis centre and crisis line costs | $2,025,280 | $744,480 | $2,769,760 |
| Total Social services operating costs | $44,713,955 | $12,170,021 | $56,883,976 |
| Intangible costs | |||
| Loss of affection and enjoyment to family | $12,558,750 | $56,588,250 | $69,147,000 |
| Total Intangible costs | $12,558,750 | $56,588,250 | $69,147,000 |
| Other costs | |||
| Funeral service costs | $395,335 | $1,781,333 | $2,176,668 |
| Family medical service costs | $6,235 | $28,243 | $34,479 |
| Family counselling costs | $64,022 | $288,474 | $352,496 |
| Total Other costs | $465,592 | $2,098,050 | $2,563,643 |
| Total Third-party costs | $83,055,081 | $91,016,442 | $174,071,523 |
| Cost category or item | Female victims | Male victims | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice system costs | $804,209,445 | $1,066,881,122 | $1,871,090,567 |
| Victim costs | $5,167,306,980 | $5,470,523,237 | $10,637,830,217 |
| Third-party costs | $83,055,081 | $91,016,442 | $174,071,523 |
| Total costs | $6,054,571,506 | $6,628,420,801 | $12,682,992,307 |
Note: Categories in bolded font are summations of the cost items listed under those categories.
Similarly, Chart G.5 also illustrates the total victimization costs of each crime, and Chart G.6 illustrates the total victimization costs by category.
Chart G.5: Costs by crime
Text version of Chart G.5
A clustered column bar chart illustrates the total victimization costs of each crime by sex of victim. The Y axis measures the cost of each offence type and increases in increments of 0.5 billion from $0 to $ 4 billion. The X axis classifies 5 offences from left to right as follows: assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences. The chart illustrates that sexual assault and other sexual offences are associated with the highest costs overall among the 5 types of the crime, followed by homicide; whereas, criminal harassment had the lowest costs overall. The total costs of assault were approximately $0.84 billion for females and $1.25 billion for males; criminal harassment cost $0.31 billion and $0.16 billion for females and males consecutively; homicide cost $0.68 billion and $3.03 billion; robbery cost $0.64 billion and $0.96 billion; and lastly, sexual assault cost $3.59 billion and $1.23 billion trillion for females and males consecutively.
Note: Direct comparison of costs across crimes must be done responsibly as there is a wide disparity in the sources, data limitations, and calculations of each crime.
Chart G.6: Costs by category
Text version of Chart G.6
A clustered column bar chart shows the costs of victimization by category of cost bearer. The Y axis measures the cost of victimization and increases in increments of one billion from $0 to $6 billion. The X axis classifies 3 groups of cost bearers from left to right as follows: justice system, victim, and third party. The chart demonstrates that victims bear the greatest cost as a result of crime; meanwhile, the third party bears the least cost. The total justice system costs for the 5 offences (assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences) examined in this study were $0.80 billion for violence against females and $1.07 billion for violence against males. Victim costs were $5.17 billion for violence against females and $5.47 billion for violence against males; and finally, the third-party bears the cost of $83 million and 91 million for violence against females and males, respectively.
Tangible vs. intangible costs
Intangible costs account for a large proportion (74%) of overall costs. Table G.7 shows breakdown between tangible and intangible costs for each crime, and Table G.8 presents the tangible costs by gender of the victim for each crime.
| Type of cost | Tangible costs | Intangible costs | Total costs | % of intangible costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | $1,050,597,644 | $1,038,083,511 | $2,088,681,156 | 50% |
| Criminal harassment | $472,812,134 | $0 | $472,812,134 | 0% |
| Homicide | $181,301,714 | $3,528,236,333 | $3,709,538,047 | 95% |
| Robbery | $1,044,013,286 | $551,354,858 | $1,595,368,143 | 35% |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | $524,959,676 | $4,291,633,150 | $4,816,592,826 | 89% |
| Total | $3,273,684,454 | $9,409,307,853 | $12,682,992,307 | 74% |
Note: Intangible costs include pain and suffering and loss of life under victim costs, and loss of affection and enjoyment to family under third-party costs.
| Type of cost | Tangible costs Female victims | % of total tangible costs | Tangible costs Male victims | % of total tangible costs | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault | $490,026,861 | 47% | $560,570,784 | 53% | $1,050,597,644 |
| Criminal harassment | $310,877,739 | 66% | $161,934,394 | 34% | $472,812,134 |
| Homicide | $35,035,164 | 19% | $146,266,551 | 81% | $181,301,714 |
| Robbery | $388,657,693 | 37% | $655,355,593 | 63% | $1,044,013,286 |
| Sexual assault and other sexual offences | $447,655,007 | 85% | $77,304,669 | 15% | $524,959,676 |
| Total | $1,672,252,464 | 51% | $1,601,431,990 | 49% | $3,273,684,454 |
The left pie chart in Chart G.7 shows the proportion of tangible and intangible costs, and the tangible costs are further broken down in the right pie by who actually pays for the cost, as opposed to who bears the burden of the impact. Three groups of parties who pay are analyzed: the state, individuals (including victims), and businesses.
Chart G.7: Tangible vs. Intangible Costs and Tangible costs by Who Pays
Text version of Chart G.7
A pie-of-pie chart depicts a breakdown of the total costs for the 5 types of victimization (assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences) exemined in this study. The pie on the left is divided into intangible and tangible costs where intangible costs represent about 74% of the total costs. More specifically, intangible costs were estimated to be $9.41 billion while tangible costs were approximately $3.27 billion. The pie on the right further breaks down the tangible costs by who actually pays of the costs. Of the $3.27 billion of tangible costs, 64% ($2.08 billion) was paid by the state/governent, 33% (1.07 billion) was borne by victims and the remaining 4% (0.12 billion) was borne by the private sector.
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