An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Violent Victimization in Canada, 2009

Assault

Introduction

Five crimes (as listed in police sources) are included in the estimation of the Criminal Justice System Costs section: level 3 (aggravated) assault, level 2 (use of weapon or causing bodily harm) assault, level 1 assault, assault against a police officer, and other assaults Footnote 13. Note that some of these crimes might not be equivalent to the definition of assault defined in the GSS, which is the main data source for the estimation of Victim Costs and Third-party Costs.

Assault is defined generally in the Criminal Code (s. 265) as:

This definition also applies to sexual assault and threats. Each level and type of assault has a more specific definition as well.

Assault is one of the most common violent crimes in Canada. According to the GSS, there were 541,202 incidents against females, 877,592 against males, and 1,418,794 total incidents in 2009. The severity of assault can vary greatly, and, as listed above, there are a range of assault offences to account for the level of violence, weaponry used, and level of injury inflicted.

For details on the offences included in this section and for the matching of offences across data sources, see Crime Categories and Assault.

See An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Violent Victimization in Canada, 2009: Technical Appendices (Hoddenbagh et al. 2013) for detailed technical tables with explanations of the data sources and methodology used in each cost item calculation.

Results

Table A.1 presents a comprehensive summary of the costs of victimization of adults who were assaulted by persons other than a spouse in 2009.

Table A.1A: Assault – summary of costs - Justice System Costs

Victim costs
Cost category or item Female victims Male victims Total
Police costs $115,857,836 $219,668,038 $335,525,874
Court costs $28,343,415 $27,546,738 $55,890,153
Prosecution costs $19,214,464 $18,674,385 $37,888,849
Legal aid costs $13,622,096 $13,239,207 $26,861,303
Corrections costs $46,970,362 $53,900,132 $100,870,494
Federal custody costs $11,477,990 $18,782,415 $30,260,405
Provincial custody costs $18,782,653 $20,841,191 $39,623,844
Conditional sentence costs $2,047,450 $2,276,056 $4,323,506
Probation costs $14,662,269 $12,000,469 $26,662,738
FinesTable note * $153,780 $134,061 $287,842
Total Justice system costs $224,008,173 $333,028,499 $557,036,672
Table A.1B: Assault – summary of costs - Victims Costs
Cost category or item Female victims Male victims Total
Medical costs
Initial health care costs $7,019,322 $7,019,322 $24,140,717
Doctor or nurse service costs $425,619 $77,127 $502,745
Emergency department costs $6,593,703 $11,050,316 $17,644,019
Overnight hospitalization costs $0 $5,993,952 $5,993,952
Long-term health care costs $57,850,205 $22,731,019 $80,581,224
Counselling costs $57,163,931 $21,919,170 $79,083,101
Medication costs $13,456 $15,919 $29,375
Physical therapy costs $672,818 $795,930 $1,468,748
Lost productivity $173,222,452 $172,601,470 $345,823,922
Lost current income $109,879,170 $73,831,599 $183,710,769
Lost household services $9,689,925 $2,570,664 $12,260,589
Lost education $4,271,540 $2,377,031 $6,648,571
Lost child care services $3,232,687 $651,927 $3,884,614
Lost future income $46,149,131 $93,170,248 $139,319,379
Long-term physical disability costs $41,131,651 $59,320,439 $100,452,090
Mental health disability costs $5,017,480 $33,849,809 $38,867,289
Total Medical costs $64,869,527 $39,852,413 $104,721,940
Intangible costs
Pain and suffering costs $350,108,996 $687,974,515 $1,038,083,511
Total Intangible costs $350,108,996 $687,974,515 $1,038,083,511
Other costs
Stolen, damaged, or destroyed property costs $1,679,936 $4,717,205 $6,397,141
Total Other costs $1,679,936 $4,717,205 $6,397,141
Total Victim costs $589,880,912 $905,145,603 $1,495,026,515

Table A.1C: Assault – summary of costs - Third-party Costs

Employer losses
Cost category or item Female victims Male victims Total
Administration costs $6,050,977 $3,081,093 $9,132,070
Lost additional output $5,713,717 $3,839,243 $9,552,960
Total Employer losses $11,764,694 $6,920,336 $18,685,030
Victim services costs $13,323,398 $3,178,380 $16,501,778
Crisis centre and crisis line costs $1,158,680 $272,480 $1,431,160
Total 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
Table A.1D: Assault – summary of costs
Cost category or item Female victims Male victims Total
Justice system costs $224,008,173 $333,028,499 $557,036,672
Total Victim costs $589,880,912 $905,145,603 $1,495,026,515
Third-party costs $26,246,772 $10,371,197 $36,617,969
Total costs $840,135,857 $1,248,545,299 $2,088,681,156

The results in Table A.1 may raise some questions by readers. Specifically, male victims have much higher initial health care costs than females, while the opposite is true for long-term health care costs. Similarly, female victims have much higher lost current income than male victims, but the opposite is true for lost future income. There are many possible explanations for these results but it is unknown what the true reasons are. One potential explanation is the nature of the data sources, specifically the GSS. GSS results with low counts (before weighting) are relatively unreliable compared to GSS results with high counts, and for some of these measures the GSS counts are quite low. The unreliability of these GSS returns may be a factor in some of the seemingly contradictory results. Another explanation for the first set of interesting results may be that females are more likely than males to seek and receive counselling services due to violent victimization, even if the injuries incurred were did not require medical services. For the second set of interesting results, the fact that females were less likely than males to be hospitalized but more likely than males to take time off of work may explain the greater lost current income, but males may potentially sustain more severe injuries in general, thus having a greater affect on their future lost income.

A.J. Justice System Costs

A.J.1 Criminal Justice System Costs

It is necessary to calculate the police, court, prosecution, and legal aid resources spent per incident for each crime type as doing so allows for distinction of non-spousal, adult victim incidents, whereas only calculating the total resources spent on each crime would not exclude incidents involving spousal relationships and youth victims.

The numbers of court cases, used in calculations of court, prosecution, and legal aid costs, are adjusted upwards by 5% to account for the 95% national coverage of the data sources.

A.J.1.1 Police Costs

Total police expenditures in Canada in 2009 were $12,316,896,000 (Burczycka 2010). The proportion of police expenditures directly related to combating and responding to criminal activity is estimated to be 65% Footnote 14, based on consultations with the Ottawa Police Service, which means that an estimated $8,005,982,400 was spent on crime-related police activities in 2009.

In order to determine how much police money was spent on preventing, combating, and responding to each crime, CCJS severity weights and the number of incidents (all incidents, including spousal and youth victims) from the UCR2 are used. 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. Severity weights are used here to approximate the differences in police resource use between crimes, though in reality severity weights do not necessarily reflect the relative level of expenditures on each offence type.

The severity weight of an offence is multiplied by the number of incidents to get a “total severity” measure for that offence. Then, the “total severity” measure for that offence is divided into the sum of all offences’ “total severity” measures, giving the proportion of summed “total severity” attributable to that offence. This proportion is then multiplied by the police funds spent on crime-related activities to get the total police expenditures attributable to that crime. The last step, to obtain the police expenditures per incident of the crime, is simply done by dividing the total police expenditures attributable to that crime by the number of police-reported incidents of that crime.

The police costs per incident for that crime are then multiplied by the number of non-spousal, adult victim incidents to get the total police costs for non-spousal, adult victim incidents of that crime.

Table A.2 shows all of the pertinent police cost information, by gender.

Table A.2: Assault – severity weights and police costs A
Offence Severity weight Table note A Police cost per incident Table note B Number of incidents against Table note C Police costs for incidents against
Females Males Females Males
Assault – level 1 23 $1,139 53,664 56,918 $61,110,161 $64,815,081
Assault – level 3 – aggravated 405 $19,677 519 2,150 $10,209,592 $42,307,507
Assault against a police officer 42 $2,019 1,992 7,777 $4,022,963 $15,705,064
Other assaults 58 $2,834 545 1,419 $1,545,025 $4,020,447
Total     67,083 92,944 $115,857,836 $219,668,038

The police costs for non-spousal, adult victim incidents of assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $335,525,874.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – police
Female victims $115,857,836
Male victims $219,668,038
Total $335,525,874

A.J.1.2 Court Costs

The most recent court expenditure data available are from 2002/2003 (Statistics Canada 2004a). When adjusted for inflation and the increased average time in court from 2002/2003 to 2009 (a factor of 1.23), total court expenditures for 2009 are estimated to be $1,601,074,756. This figure includes both criminal and civil courts, though this section is only concerned with criminal courts, and it does exclude some significant capital costs, such as building maintenance costs.

Since the court expenditures figure ($1,601,074,756) includes all court cases for both criminal and civil courts (including all ages of offenders and victims and all relationships between offenders and victims), any cost per case estimations must account for and distinguish between criminal and civil cases and the different crime types within criminal court in order to allow more precise estimations of the court costs of adult victim, non-spousal cases for each offence. Therefore, calculations are made to determine the cost per case of each offence type for criminal court and the cost per civil case for civil court. As there are many offence types for criminal court and only one civil case type in this analysis, civil court is referred to here as another “crime type” to simplify the explanation. The end result is an estimate of the cost per case for each criminal offence type and the cost per case for civil cases.

This first part of the estimation must be done for cases involving all ages and relationships (including spousal relationships and youth victims), is conducted for youth and adult offenders separately, and is done for each crime type separately. First, the average number of days in court is determined for each crime type (from the ACCS, YCS, Statistics Canada (2010b), and Statistics Canada (2011a)). The average court time for a crime is then multiplied by the number of cases of that crime to get the total court time for that offence. Next, the total court time for that offence is divided into the sum of total court times for all crimes to get the proportion of court time devoted to that offence. Next, this proportion is multiplied by the total court expenditures in 2009 to get the total court expenditures on that crime, which is then divided by the number of cases to get the court expenditures per case for that crime, separately for adult and youth offenders. As all of the previous steps were done separately for youth and adult offenders, the final step to obtain the court expenditures per case is to find the weighted average of the court expenditures per case for adult and youth offenders.

The court expenditure per case must be applied to the number of cases involving non-spousal relationships and adult victims. Court data from the ACCS and the YCS do not provide these details, so these case numbers must be estimated. This is done with UCR2 charge data and court data from the ACCS and the YCS, all of which are for all incidents and all cases (i.e., no relationship or age conditions), and are separate for male and female offenders. For each crime type, the number of incidents resulting in a charge (from police data) is divided by the number of court cases for the corresponding crime in the court data to get an estimated “rate of charges resulting in court cases”. This “rate of charges resulting in court cases” for each crime type, calculated for all incidents and cases (i.e., no relationship or age conditions), is then applied to police-reported incidents of non-spousal, adult victim crimes (obtained by special request to CCJS) to get the estimated number of court cases for non-spousal, adult victim crimes.

The final calculation is applying the costs per court case to the estimated number of court cases for each crime. The court costs for cases that took place due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $55,890,153.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – court
Female victims $28,343,415
Male victims $27,546,738
Total $55,890,153

A.J.1.3 Prosecution Costs

The most recent prosecution expenditure data available are from 2002/2003 (Statistics Canada 2004b). In addition to being slightly dated, the expenditure data do not have national coverage. A comprehensive national expenditure must therefore be estimated.

The prosecution costs from Statistics Canada (2004b) are broken down by province. First, these costs are summed across all available provinces. The number of criminal court cases in 2002/2003 in those same provinces (from the ACCS and the YCS) is also summed. The summation of costs is then divided by the summation of court cases to get the prosecution costs per court case in 2002/2003. This number is adjusted for inflation and the increased average time in court from 2002/2003 to 2009 (a factor of 1.23) and then multiplied by the number of criminal court cases in 2009 (also from the ACCS and YCS) to get the estimated national prosecution costs in 2009. This estimate is $558,911,198.

The method for calculating the prosecution costs per case for each offence is identical to the method used for calculating the court costs per case for each offence, except total prosecution costs are used in place of total court costs. The number of court cases is also calculated in the court costs section. See A.J.1.2 Court Costs for details.

The prosecution costs per case are multiplied by the relevant number of court cases to get the prosecution costs for non-spousal, adult victim cases. The prosecution costs for cases that took place due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $37,888,849.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – prosecution
Female victims $19,214,464
Male victims $18,674,385
Total $37,888,849

A.J.1.4 Legal Aid Costs

Legal aid expenditure data are available for the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 fiscal years (Statistics Canada 2011c). Legal aid is available for both criminal and civil matters, but this section is only concerned with criminal matters. Legal aid data are separated into three categories: direct, central administrative, and other. Only the data for the direct category are enumerated by criminal and civil matters, so the amount of criminal legal aid in the central administrative and other categories (which are here just combined into one category, called “other”) must be estimated. To do this, the proportion of direct legal aid spent on criminal matters (out of criminal and civil) is applied to the amount of “other” legal aid, resulting in an estimate of $396,240,142 in legal aid spent on criminal matters when the criminal proportion of direct and other are added together.

The method for calculating the legal aid costs per case for each offence is identical to the method used for calculating the court costs per case for each offence, except criminal legal aid costs are used in place of total court costs. The number of court cases is also calculated in the court costs section. See A.J.1.2 Court Costs for details.

The legal aid costs per case are multiplied by the relevant number of court cases to get the legal aid costs for non-spousal, adult victim cases. The legal aid costs for cases that took place due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $26,861,303.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – legal aid
Female victims $13,622,096
Male victims $13,239,207
Total $26,861,303

A.J.1.5 Corrections Costs

Offenders convicted in criminal court can be sentenced to federal custody, provincial custody, a conditional sentence, probation, a fine, or some other sentence; the five specified sentences are analyzed in this report. Table A.3 shows the proportion that each sentence is given for each crime type (calculated from the ACCS and the YCS), for all incidents and victims (i.e., no age or relationship conditions), by the victim of offender.

These measures 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 this table 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 (shown in Table A.4). The method used to obtain the results in Table A.3 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.

Table A.3: Assault sentence proportions (all crimes and victims), by gender of offender
Offence Custody Conditional sentence Probation Fine Other
M F M F M F M F M F
Adult offenders
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%
Youth offenders
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%

Source 1: Statistics Canada, CCJS, ACCS – Guilty cases by most serious sentence, CANSIM 252-0057.

Source 2: Statistics Canada. CCJS, YCS – Guilty cases by most serious sentence, CANSIM 252-0068

The results from Table A.3 are used to estimate the number of offenders receiving each type of sentence for non-spousal, adult victim crimes. Due to the nature of the data, the method used to obtain the estimates in Table A.4 involves many steps.

First, for each crime type, the number of incidents resulting in charges (from police data) is divided by the number of court cases to get a “rate of charges resulting in cases” for all crimes (i.e., no relationship or age conditions). This rate is calculated for all crimes (i.e. no conditions) because court case data, the numerator, is not available with age or relationship restrictions. This rate is then multiplied by the number of police incidents cleared by charge for non-spousal, adult victim crimes to get the estimated number of court cases for non-spousal, adult victim crimes. Another measure for all crimes (i.e., no conditions) is then calculated: the percentage of cases resulting in convictions for each crime type is calculated using court data (convictions divided by court cases). Again, this measure must be calculated for all crimes (i.e., no conditions) because court data are not available with victim age and relationship conditions. Next, this percentage is multiplied by the estimated number of non-spousal, adult victim court cases to get the estimated number of offenders convicted for non-spousal, adult victim crimes. All of the previous steps are calculated by the gender of the offender (which is available in both police and court datasets) to be consistent with the information in Table A.3, which is used in the final step. The estimated number of convicted offenders of non-spousal, adult victim crimes is multiplied by the results of Table A.3 to get the estimated number of offenders sentenced to each type of sentence for non-spousal, adult victim crimes in 2009; these estimates are shown in Table A.4, by the gender of the victim.

The results of Table A.4 are used as the base counts in the estimations of the costs of each sentence type. Note that the terminology used when discussing federal custody and provincial custody may not always be precise in name, but it is generally accurate in concept. For example, the analysis takes into consideration time served in the community through “parole” and “statutory release”, and assigns a lower cost to these than to the time spent in incarceration. However, in the youth corrections field, the terms “parole” and “statutory release” do not exist; the concepts, though, do exist. A youth offender can be released from custody into the community prior to the completion of his or her sentence, but through different procedures that have different names than adult offenders. Federal and provincial corrections services also differ in the use and meaning of the parole and statutory release concepts, but again the general idea is similar. The terms and procedures of “parole” and “statutory release” are used for all offenders as the general structure of custody is similar across offenders.

Table A.4A: Assault sentence numbers (non-spousal crimes and adult victims) - Adult Offenders
Offence Custody Conditional sentence Probation Fine Other
Female victims - Major assault 907 185 778 64 125
Female victims - Common assault 1,037 215 4,796 257 667
Male Victims - Major assault 1,527 310 1,300 107 209
Male Victims - Common assault 631 134 3,153 171 461
Total Victims - Major assault 2,434 496 2,078 171 334
Total Victims - Common assault 1,668 350 7,949 428 1,127
Table A.4B: Assault sentence numbers (non-spousal crimes and adult victims) - Youth Offenders
Offence Custody Conditional sentence Probation Fine Other
Female victims - Major assault 50 0 127 2 62
Female victims - Common assault 30 1 284 6 185
Male Victims - Major assault 86 1 207 2 106
Male Victims - Common assault 33 1 276 7 177
Total Victims - Major assault 136 1 334 3 168
Total Victims - Common assault 63 2 560 13 362
A.J.1.5.1 Federal custody costs

There are many aspects of the federal corrections system that must be taken into account when estimating costs, such as time actually spent in custody versus time served in the community (due to parole or statutory release), and the difference in costs of incarcerating a female offender versus a male offender (partially due to the economies of scale driven by higher numbers of male offenders). The estimated average length of federal custody sentences for assault was 1,277 days (derived from Thomas (2010) and ACCS court data) in 2009. The numbers of offenders sentenced to federal custody for assault are as follows: 42 males for violence against females, 3 females for violence against females, 68 males for violence against males, and 4 females for violence against males. The daily cost for holding a male in federal incarceration was $292 and the cost for a female was $556 in 2009 (Public Safety Canada 2010). The cost of supervising an offender on parole was $81 (Public Safety Canada 2010), and the cost of supervising an offender with statutory release is assumed to be the same as the cost of probation, which was $6.94 in 2009 (see A.J.1.5.4 Probation costs for calculation details).

After calculating how many total days were spent by offenders in custody and parole and on statutory release, the daily costs of each were applied to get the total costs of federal custody sentences. The federal custody costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $30,260,405.

Assault — justice system — criminal justice system – corrections – federal custody
Female victims $11,477,990
Male victims $18,782,415
Total $30,260,405
A.J.1.5.2 Provincial custody costs

The provincial corrections system is similar to the federal one in its complexity, and paroles and statutory releases must be accounted for. The average number of days sentenced to custody differs between male and female offenders, but only one daily cost value is available for all offenders.

For assault, the average length of provincial custody sentences was 90 days for male offenders and 71 days for female offenders (from the ACCS and YCS). The numbers of offenders sentenced to provincial custody for assault are as follows: 1,824 males for violence against females, 156 females for violence against females, 2,002 males for violence against males, and 202 females for violence against males. The daily cost for holding an offender in provincial custody was $161 in 2009 (Statistics Canada 2010a). The daily cost of parole was $32, based on information from the John Howard Society Footnote 15, and the daily cost of supervising an offender with statutory release is assumed to be the same as the cost of probation, which was $6.94 in 2009 (see A.J.1.5.4 Probation costs for calculation details).

After calculating how many total days were spent by offenders in custody and parole and on statutory release, the daily costs of each were applied to get the total costs of provincial custody sentences. The provincial custody costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $39,623,844.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – corrections – provincial custody
Female victims $18,782,653
Male victims $20,841,191
Total $39,623,844
A.J.1.5.3 Conditional sentence costs

Roberts and LaPrairie (2000) provide information on the average length of conditional sentences for general categories of offences. Though dated, this is the most recent and most specific data available. The average conditional sentence length for “offences against the person”, which includes assault, is 210 days. Conditional sentence daily costs are estimated by referring to provincial custody costs. It is estimated that supervising someone with a conditional sentence costs $50,000 less per year than holding someone in custody. Footnote 16 Calculating the annual costs of the incarceration of one offender in provincial custody from Statistics Canada (2010a), subtracting $50,000, and converting from annual to daily costs, the daily cost of supervising an offender with a conditional sentence is estimated to be $24.26.

Given the number of offenders sentenced to a conditional sentence from Table A.4 (402 for violence against female victims and 447 for violence against males), the conditional sentence costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $4,323,506.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – corrections – conditional sentence
Female victims $2,047,450
Male victims $2,276,056
Total $4,323,506
A.J.1.5.4 Probation costs

Probation length data are provided in the court-reported ACCS and YCS. Probation lengths are calculated separately for male and female offenders. The calculation process involves first determining the average probation length by gender of the offender, offence type (e.g., major assault), and age of the offender. Next, these averages are used to calculate the total length of all probation sentences for youth and adults (and still separated by the crime and by gender). These total lengths for youth and adults are then summed and divided by the sum of the cases resulting in probation sentences for youth and adults to get the average probation sentence lengths for each police-source crime type separately (and for genders separately). The weighted average of these cases is then found to get the average probation sentence length for offenders convicted of assault, for male and female offenders separately. The average probation sentence length for males was 360 days and for females was 317 days.

There is no official data for the daily, per-offender costs of probation, and this figure is therefore estimated. Dauvergne (2012) contains information on the total cost of community supervision services (which includes the costs of conditional sentence, probation, and parole) as well as the daily average counts of offenders in each type of community supervision. The daily average counts for conditional sentence and parole are multiplied by their daily costs (found in A.J.1.5.1 Federal custody costs, A.J.1.5.2 Provincial custody costs, and A.J.1.5.3 Conditional sentence costs and 365 days to get the total expenditures on conditional sentence and parole. The total expenditures on conditional sentence and parole are then subtracted from the total cost of community supervision services (adjusted for inflation) taken from Dauvergne (2012), which leaves the total expenditure on probation and statutory release. Dividing the total expenditure on probation and statutory release by the average counts of offenders with these supervision types and 365 days gives a result of $6.94 in daily, per-offender probation costs.

The number of offenders sentenced to probation is given in Table A.4. The probation costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $26,662,738.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – corrections – probation
Female victims $14,662,269
Male victims $12,000,469
Total $26,662,738
A.J.1.5.5 Fines

Costs to the offender are not included in this report (see Sources of Economic Impacts for reasons), and fines are calculated here for illustrative purposes only. These results are not included in any summations of total costs.

The following steps are conducted separately for each police-source crime type. Mean fine amounts for adult offenders are available from Thomas (2010), and these amounts are multiplied by the number of fines given (from the ACCS) to get the total value of adult fines. The number of youth fines in each range is available from the YCS, and by using the midpoint of each range, the total value of youth fines can also be determined. The total value of youth and adult fines are summed and divided by the sum of the numbers of youth and adult fines. The resulting average fines for common and major assaults are averaged by weight to get the average fine amount for assaults in general ($467).

This average fine amount is then multiplied by the number of offenders receiving fines from Table A.4 (329 for violence against females, 287 for violence against males). The fine costs to offenders due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $287,842.

Assault – justice system – criminal justice system – corrections – fines
Female victims $153,780
Male victims $134,061
Total $287,842

A.V. Victim Costs

A.V.1 Medical Costs

A.V.1.1 Initial Health Care Costs
A.V.1.1.1 Doctor or nurse service costs

The GSS finds that there were about 7,781 times physician visits of female victims and 1,410 times physician visits of male victims due to assault incidents in 2009. The cost of one physician visit in 2009, from Canadian Institute for Health Information (2007), was $55 after inflation adjustment.

Multiplying the number of victims by the cost per visit, the doctor or nurse service costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $502,745.

Assault – victim – medical – initial health care – doctor or nurse service
Female victims $425,619
Male victims $77,127
Total $502,745
A.V.1.1.2 Emergency department costs

Many victims of assault required medical attention at a hospital or health centre, which is deemed equivalent to visiting the emergency department. The GSS finds that there were 15,831 visits of female victims and 26,531 visits of male victims because of experiencing an assault incident in 2009. The cost of one emergency department (ER) visit was $267 in 2009, based on data for Ontario and after an adjustment for inflation (Canadian Institute for Health Information 2010). In addition, it is assumed that 25% of emergency department visits due to assault involve ambulatory transportation, an assumption based on information from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) which states that approximately 12% of ER patients arrived by ambulance Footnote 17. As the usage of ambulance transportation for general ER visits might be lower than that for visits for injuries caused by assault incidents, it is assumed that 25% of the visits involve ambulance transportation. The cost of one ambulance trip varies across the country, so a representative value ($600) is used based on information from several provinces.

Multiplying the appropriate numbers, the emergency department costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $17,644,019.

Assault – victim – medical – initial health care – emergency department
Female victims $6,593,703
Male victims $11,050,316
Total $17,644,019
A.V.1.1.3 Overnight hospitalization costs

The GSS finds that male victims spent 6,006 nights in hospital due to assaults in 2009 whereas no female victims stayed in a hospital overnight Footnote 18. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (2008) gives the average acute (overnight) hospitalization stay cost at $7,585 (after inflation adjustment), and Canadian Institute for Health Information (2009) gives the average nights spent in hospital per acute hospitalization stay at 7.6, which implies that the average cost per night spent in overnight hospitalization was $998 in 2009.

Multiplying the number of days spent overnight in hospital by the cost per night, the overnight hospitalization costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $5,993,952.

Assault – victim – medical – initial health care – overnight hospitalization
Female victims $0
Male victims $5,993,952
Total $5,993,952
A.V.1.2 Long-term Health Care Costs
A.V.1.2.1 Counselling costs

The GSS finds that female victims used counselling services 44,854 times and male victims used counselling services17,199 times in response to an assault. New and Berliner (2000) find that the average number of counselling sessions for assault victims is 15, while information from the government of British Columbia suggests that the average counselling session costs $85 Footnote 19.

.

After multiplication, the counselling costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $79,083,101.

Assault – victim – medical – long-term health care – counselling
Female victims $57,163,931
Male victims $21,919,170
Total $79,083,101
A.V.1.2.2 Medication costs

The estimate for medication costs is extremely low because of the lack of data. The severity of injuries sustained from assaults varies widely, from no injuries to life-threatening injuries. Also, the cause of the injury (the assault) may be unknown to healthcare workers or to potential researchers, and the injury itself may be unknown if victims do not go to a hospital. Taken together, this means that studying the injury and medication outcomes of assault is very difficult, as there are many potential outcomes and medication requirements. Useable information was found for only one very limited outcome: medicine taken for pain relief when victims have a fracture.

The potential number of victims sustaining a fracture is assumed to be a proportion of the number of visits an emergency department (15,831 visits of female victims and 26,531 visits of male victims). It has been found that 34% of assault female victims and 24% of assault male victims visiting the emergency department have a fracture (Shepherd et al. 1990), which implies that 5,383 female victim visits and 6,367 male victim visits involved a fracture. A study (Drendel et al. 2009) on the impact of different types of medicine given to children with a fracture suggests that children take 12 doses in the three-day study period, and it is assumed that adult victims with a fracture will require just the same painkiller doses. One medicine found to be effective in the study is ibuprofen, which costs about $0.21 per dose according to various online retail sources.

Applying the number of people with a fracture to the number and cost of doses, the medication costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $29,375.

Assault – victim – medical – long-term health care – medication
Female victims $13,456
Male victims $15,919
Total $29,375
A.V.1.2.3 Physical therapy costs

The estimate for physical therapy costs is low because of the lack of data. As noted in the previous section, the severity of injuries sustained from assaults varies widely, from no injuries to life-threatening injuries. Also, the cause of the injury (the assault) may be unknown to healthcare workers or to potential researchers, and the injury itself may be unknown if victims do not go to a hospital. Taken together, this means that studying the injury and physical therapy outcomes of assault is very difficult, as there are many potential outcomes and physical therapy requirements. Useable information was found for only one very limited outcome: physical therapy required when victims have a fracture.

Due to lack of data, the percentage of people with a fracture who use physical therapy to recover must be assumed; here it is assumed at 50%. Using the figures from the previous section, this implies that approximately 5,875 victims require physical therapy. Based on a requirement of 5 physical therapy sessions at $50 per session, Footnote 20 the physical therapy costs due to incidents of non-spousal, adult victim assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $1,468,748.

Assault – victim – medical – long-term health care – physical therapy
Female victims $672,818
Male victims $795,930
Total $1,468,748

A.V.2 Lost Productivity

A.V.2.1 Lost Current Income

GSS respondents who reported that their main activity during the last 12 months was either “working at a paid job or business” are included in this section. The amount of time that victims were unable to work includes days in the emergency department, hospitalization time, time spent recovering in bed outside of the hospital, and other time where victims found it difficult or impossible to carry out his/her main activity Footnote 21. As the GSS data does not report the length of hospitalization if victims stayed in hospital overnight, 1 day as an assumption is used. For other questions on lost days, if respondents answered “X days and more”, the smallest number of that range is always chosen to ensure a conservative estimate.

The GSS finds that employed female victims of assault were unable to attend work for 821,526 work days, and employed male victims were unable to attend work for 418,313 work days. Subtracting the number of days that were covered by paid sick leave benefits, the figures become 711,277 lost days for females and 369,162 lost days for males Footnote 22. According to GSS, the average daily wage of female assault victims was $154, and the average daily wage of male assault victims in the GSS was $200.

In this way, the lost current income to adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $183,710,769.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost current income
Female victims $109,879,170
Male victims $73,831,599
Total $183,710,769
A.V.2.2 Lost Household Services

For those victims whose main activity was doing household services, 7.5 hours are assigned for each lost days, which include days in the emergency department, hospitalization days, days in bed outside of the hospital, and other time where victims found it difficult or impossible to carry out his/her main activity Footnote 23. For all other victims whose main activity was not conducting household services, number of hours spent on household activities is estimated from Labour Force Survey. According to Statistics Canada (2011b), females on average spend 3.89 hours per day on household activities and males spend 2.48 hours per day on household activities. As these figures cover those people with household services as their main activities, the numbers are adjusted to 3.68 hours for females and 2.44 for males for people whose main activities was not conducting household services.

The GSS finds that female victims lost 729,114 hours of household work and males lost 193,428 hours of household work due to assault victimization. At an hourly rate of $13.29, Footnote 24 the value of the lost household services of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $12,260,589.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost household services
Female victims $9,689,925
Male victims $2,570,664
Total $12,260,589
A.V.2.3 Lost Education

The GSS finds that female student victims were unable to go to school for 108,042 school days, and male student victims were unable to go to school for 60,123 school days. Similar to the previous sections, these days include days in the emergency department, hospitalization days, days in bed outside of the hospital, and other time where victims found it difficult or impossible to carry out his/her main activity, and have been adjusted to take into account potential school days.

Information from Statistics Canada Footnote 25 and academic calendars at major universities shows that the average daily cost of education is approximately $40. The lost education to adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $6,648,571.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost education
Female victims $4,271,540
Male victims $2,377,031
Total $6,648,571
A.V.2.4 Lost Child Care Services

For those victims whose main activity was “caring for children”, the GSS finds that female victims were unable to carry out that activity for 85,468 days and male victims were unable to carry out that activity for 17,236 days. Given a $38 average daily cost of child care Footnote 26 the lost child care services of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $3,884,614.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost child care services
Female victims $3,232,687
Male victims $651,927
Total $3,884,614
A.V.2.5 Lost Future Income
A.V.2.5.1 Long-term physical disability costs

The numbers of employed victims estimated to have sustained an injury, where sustaining an injury is based on the criterion of requiring medical attention at a hospital, are 14,774 female victims and 20,756 male victims. It is assumed that out of the total medically treated injuries, 0.3% of the injuries would have caused permanent or long-term disability, according to Corso et al. (2006). The average income of female assault victims was $34,875, while the average income of male assault victims was $28,524. The GSS also provides the average age of victims, and assuming that careers last until age 65, that incomes never change, and that inflation is equal to the discount rate, the expected remaining lifetime income is calculated. The lost future income (due to physical disabilities) of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $100,452,090.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost future income – long-term physical disability costs
Female victims $41,131,651
Male victims $59,320,439
Total $100,452,090
A.V.2.5.2 Mental health disability costs

Studying the mental health outcomes of victimization is difficult and can involve subjectivity. To estimate the future costs of mental health degradation, the number of victims developing a mental health problem must first be estimated. To do this, the numbers of victims who are assumed to be participants in the labour force, who had reported getting “depression/anxiety attacks” because of the incident, and who had never before sustained an assault, robbery, or sexual assault were obtained from the GSS; the results are 2,327 female victims and 11,384 male victims, and these are defined as the victims potentially affected by a mental health issue. To calculate the number of victims actually assumed to have developed a mental health issue, the percentage of assault victims who have mental health needs for a “severely disabling mental illness” is taken from Miller et al. (1993) (0.7%). Applying this latter number to the numbers of victims who potentially have a mental illness, the estimated numbers of victims who developed or will develop a serious mental illness are 16 female victims and 80 male victims.

The annual income lost due to mental health issues developed by assault victims is calculated by applying the proportion of annual income lost due to mental health issues in general (from Kessler et al. 2008) to the annual income of GSS respondents, and the results are $11,575 for female victims and $13,834 for male victims. Taking the average age of the appropriate respondents and assuming that careers last until age 65, that incomes never change, and that inflation is equal to the discount rate, the lost future income (due to mental disabilities) of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $38,867,289.

Assault – victim – lost productivity – lost future income – mental health disability costs
Female victims $5,017,480
Male victims $33,849,809
Total $38,867,289

A.V.3 Intangible Costs

A.V.3.1 Pain and Suffering Costs

For a brief discussion on the issues raised when valuing intangibles and the methods used to do so, see Valuation of Intangibles.

All assault victims in the GSS are assumed to experience pain and suffering. Victims of each level of assault are assigned different values of pain and suffering.

The GSS finds that there were 351,031 female victims and 588,209 male victims of assault in 2009. Of these victims, the incidents for 150,687 females and 227,797 males were brought to the attention of police. The GSS does not distinguish between each level of assault, so the UCR2 is used to determine the proportion of assaults that are level 1, the proportion that are level 2, and the proportion that are level 3. These proportions are then applied to the GSS numbers of victims with incidents brought to the attention of police (victims with incidents that were not brought to the attention of police are assumed to have sustained the less serious level 1 assault) to get the estimated number of victims in the entire population who sustained level 1, 2, and 3 assaults. The resulting estimates are 1,211 female and 5,848 male victims of level 3 assault, 24,191 female and 67,132 male victims of level 2 assault, and 325,628 female and 515,229 male victims of level 1 assault.

The value of pain and suffering for level 3 (aggravated) assault is taken from McCollister et al. (2010); after adjustment for inflation, this value is $14,186. The values for assaults level 1 and 2 must be estimated based on the value for level 3 because pain and suffering costs for assault are only available for level 3. To do this, the severity weights of assaults level 1 and 2 are compared to the severity weight of assault level 3, and the $14,186 value of pain and suffering for level 3 is then adjusted for levels 1 and 2. The value assigned to level 2 is $2,711, and the value assigned to level 1 is $821.

Multiplying the numbers of victims by the values of pain and suffering, the total pain and suffering of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $1,038,083,511.

Assault – victim – intangible – pain and suffering
Female victims $350,108,996
Male victims $687,974,515
Total $1,038,083,511

A.V.4 Other Costs

A.V.4.1 Stolen, Damaged, or Destroyed Property Costs

The GSS finds that property was stolen during 860 assault incidents for male victims at an average cost of $25. In addition, the property was damaged or destroyed during 8,869 incidents for female victims and 22,046 incidents for male victims, at the average cost of $189 and $213 respectively. Multiplying the appropriate measures, the stolen, damaged, or destroyed property costs of adult victims of non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $6,397,141.

Assault – victim – other – stolen, damaged or destroyed property
Female victims $1,679,936
Male victims $4,717,205
Total $6,397,141

A.T. Third-Party Costs

A.T.1 Employer Losses

A.T.1.1 Administration Costs

When employees are not able to work, managers and administrators must spend time reorganizing the work of other employees, rescheduling, and doing other administrative tasks.

The GSS finds that employed female victims were unable to do their main activities for 821,526 working days, and employed male victims were unable to do their main activities for 418313 working days.

With average hourly wage rates of $37 for managers and $22 for administrators, Footnote 27 and assuming 0.125 hours of time spent for managers and 0.125 hours for administrators (a conservative estimate based on estimation in Health and Safety Executive (1999)), the administration costs of employers due to adult victim, non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $9,132,070.

Assault – third-party – employer losses – administration
Female victims $6,050,977
Male victims $3,081,093
Total $9,132,070
A.T.1.2 Lost Additional Output

To calculate the lost additional output to employers, lost wages of employees are multiplied by the expected marginal rate of return to the employer. The total lost wages (from A.V.2.1 Lost Current Income are $109,879,170 for female victims and $73,831,599 for male victims, and the expected marginal rate of return is 5.2% (Boardman et al. 2008). A marginal rate of return on investment of 5.2% means that if an employer invests (disinvests) an additional $100, as through employee wages, the employer expects to gain (lose) $5.20 in net returns.

Multiplying the lost wages by the expected rate of return, the lost additional output of employers due to adult victim, non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 is estimated to be $9,552,960.

Assault – third-party – employer losses – lost additional output
Female victims $5,713,717
Male victims $3,839,243
Total $9,552,960

A.T.2 Social Services Operating Costs

One important cost that cannot be estimated here is the cost of support centres. The GSS finds that 21,930 female and 8,157 male victims of assault in 2009 used one of the various categories of support centres listed in the GSS: “community centre, CLSC or family centre”, “women’s centre”, or “men’s centre/men’s support group or seniors’ centre”. There is no available information on the operational costs of these services or on the average duration of use by clients.

A.T.2.1 Victim Services Costs

The GSS finds that female victims used victim services 29,230 times and male victims of assault used the services 6,973 times in 2009. Information from Sauvé (2009) is used to calculate the operating cost per victim service agency, which is $269,767 after inflation adjustment to 2009. Dividing by the number of victims assisted per agency (592), the operating cost per victim was $456 in 2009 Footnote 28.

Multiplying the number of victims using victim services by the operating cost per victim, the victim services costs due to adult victim, non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $16,501,778.

Assault – third-party – social services – victim services
Female victims $13,323,398
Male victims $3,178,380
Total $16,501,778
A.T.2.2 Crisis Line Costs

The GSS finds that female victims visited a crisis centre or called a crisis line 28,967 times because of the crime and male victims visited a crisis centre or called a crisis line 6,812 times. As these two services are not separated in the GSS question, an assumption is made in this report that all respondents who answered that they had used either of these services only called a crisis line to ensure a conservative estimate. Expenditure information for crisis lines is not accessible, so only the hourly wage of a crisis line coordinator is taken into consideration. From various job postings, this hourly wage is estimated at $20. Footnote 29 The average length of phone calls to crisis lines is set at 0.4 hours, based on a report from a US-based crisis line. Footnote 30 The last piece of information needed is the average number of calls that a service user makes to a crisis line, but obtaining this information is complicated by the fact that calls to crisis lines are anonymous, and so the caller’s name is not recorded. Therefore, anecdotal evidence from crisis line workers must be used, and this indicates that each caller makes about 5 calls to a crisis line during an issue.

Multiplying the number of victims calling a crisis line by the average length of a call and number of calls made, the crisis line costs due to adult victim, non-spousal assault that occurred in 2009 are estimated to be $1,431,160

Assault – third-party – social services – crisis lines
Female victims $1,158,680
Male victims $272,480
Total $1,431,160