U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief The Costs of Crime to Victims: Crime Data Brief February 1994 NCJ-145865 Full text with tables available from: Bureau of Justice Statistics Clearinghouse 800-732-3277 (fax Number for report orders and mail list signup only: 410-792-4358) Box 179 Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0179 The Costs of Crime to Victims By Patsy A. Klaus, BJS Statistician Crime victims in 1992 lost $17.6 billion in direct costs, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). These costs included losses from property theft or damage, cash losses, medical expenses, and amount of pay lost because of injury or activities related to the crime. The crimes included in this figure are rape, robbery, assault, personal and household theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. Crimes include attempts as well as completed offenses. *Economic loss of some kind occurred in 71% of all personal crimes. These crimes included rape, robbery, assault, and personal theft. For crimes of violence (rape, robbery, assault) economic loss occurred in 23% of victimizations. Household crimes of burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft involved economic loss in 91% of all victimizations. *In 1992, a total of 33,649,340 victimizations occurred. Twenty-three percent of all U.S. households were victimized in 1992; the total number of households experiencing one or more victimizations was 22,093,000. *Economic loss occurred in 13,371,400 personal crimes and 13,515,140 household crimes--a total of 26,886,580* victimizations. In 4.4% of these victimizations, the loss was of no monetary value but involved the loss of something that the victim regarded as having value. (*This number is larger than the number of victimized households, since a household is counted only once, regardless of the number of victimizations that occurred.) ************************************************************ Average loss per crime, 1992 Mean loss, all crimes* $524 Personal crimes $218 Crimes of violence 206 Rape 234 Robbery 555 Assault 124 Household crimes $914 Personal and household theft 221 Burglary 834 Motor vehicle theft 3,990 Note: Data include all forms of economic loss, medical expenses, and time lost from work because of the crime. *Includes crimes involving no loss. *********************************************************** *Among crimes that involved loss-- --About 12% of personal crimes and 24% of household crimes involved economic losses of $500 or more. --For personal crimes, 11% of whites and 15% of blacks lost $500 or more. For household crimes, 23% of whites and 25% of blacks had such losses. --In robberies at least $250 or more was taken from the victim in about a fourth (26%) of all victimizations. Black victims lost this amount in 41% of the victimizations, and white robbery victims, in 19%. --Lost property was not recovered in 89% of personal crimes (90% for whites; 89% for blacks) and 85% of household crimes in 1992 (85% for whites; 82% for blacks). ************************************************************ Median loss for crimes of theft, 1992 All crimes, with or without loss $26 Crimes involving loss Robbery $89 Theft 55 Burglary 50 Motor vehicle theft 3,600 Note: Data include only direct property losses and do not include medical expenses or other costs. ************************************************************ Victims receiving medical care, by type of crime and where care was received, 1992 Health Number At own, unit or of victims neighbor's, first- Type of receiving At the or friend's aid Crime medical care Total scene house station Crimes of violence 1,419,940 100.0% 6.7% 30.1% 2.3%* Rape 68,070 100.0 .0* .0* .0* Robbery 355,570 100.0 7.4* 38.8 1.0* Assault 996,290 100.0 6.9 29.0 2.9* Note: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. Respondents may have received medical attention at more than one location; however, percent distribution is based on locations of medical care. *Estimate based on 10 or fewer sample cases. Victims receiving medical care, by type of crime and where care was received, 1992 Emergency Doctor's room at Type of office hospital crime or clinic or clinic Hospital Other Crimes of violence 11.5% 31.8% 14.1% 3.6% Rape 20.4* 47.7* 24.7* 7.2* Robbery 10.0* 25.5 9.8* 7.5* Assault 11.4 33.0 15.0 1.9* Note: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. Respondents may have received medical attention at more than one location; however, percent distribution is based on locations of medical care. *Estimate based on 10 or fewer sample cases. ************************************************************ Amount of loss, based upon crimes involving economic loss, 1992 Total No mone- $500 victimi- tary $1- $250- or Don't zations value $249 $499 more know Personal crimes Crimes of violence (a) 1,548,680 5.3% 57.3% 8.6% 12.7% 16.2% Robbery 876,800 1.3* 60.0 9.1 17.7 11.6 Assault 639,170 10.3 55.4 7.6 4.0 22.8 Personal theft 11,822,760 1.8 68.6 9.4 11.8 8.3 Household crimes 13,515,140 2.2 53.6 9.5 23.8 10.9 Burglary 4,009,560 3.9 39.8 11.7 31.3 13.4 Household theft 7,748,500 1.5 69.4 9.5 9.6 9.9 Motor vehicle theft 1,757,080 1.4* 15.0 5.1 69.1 9.4 *Estimate based on 10 or fewer sample cases. (a) Includes rape, not shown separately because of the relatively few victims reporting monetary loss. ************************************************************ *About 3l% of all victims of crimes of violence (robbery and assault) in 1992 sustained some physical injury. Thirty percent of whites and 32% of blacks sustained injury. *For crimes of violence involving injuries in which medical expenses were known, 65% involved costs of $250 or more. These findings were similar for whites (65%) and blacks (66%). ************************************************************ Total economic loss to victims of crime, 1992 All crime victims $17,646,000,000 Victims with losses Personal crimes $4,110,000,000 Crimes of violence 1,362,000,000 Rape 33,000,000 Robbery 680,000,000 Assault 649,000,000 Crimes of personal theft 2,748,000,000 Larceny with contact 76,000,000 Larceny without contact 2,672,000,000 Household crimes 13,536,000,000 Burglary 3,970,000,000 Household larceny 1,750,000,000 Motor theft 7,816,000,000 *In 1992, 69% of the victims who were injured had health insurance or were eligible for public medical services. Seventy percent of all whites and 66% of all blacks had insurance coverage or eligibility for public medical services. *About 8% of all victims lost time from work in 1992 as a result of a crime of violence and 6% as a result of a household crime. *About the same percentages of blacks and whites lost time from work for personal crimes (whites, 5%; blacks, 6%). However, when time was lost, 67% of blacks lost 1-5 days, compared with 43% of whites. For personal crimes of theft, 77% of blacks lost 1-5 days, compared with 31% of whites. ************************************************************ 1.8 million victims in 1992 lost 6.1 million days from work, an average of 3.4 days per crime Percent of all victimizations with lost time All personal crimes 5.2% Crimes of violence 7.6 Crimes of theft 3.9 All household crimes 6.1 Burglary 5.2 Larceny 4.0 Motor vehicle theft 17.2 ************************************************************ The economic costs to victims reported in this crime data brief include only those that had occurred before the interview, which was 6 months or less after the crime. Medical costs may continue to accumulate for months or years after a victimization; these are not included. The victim is not specifically asked about psychological counseling, although some victims may have included this as a medical cost. Increases to insurance premiums as a result of filing claims, decreased productivity at work, moving costs incurred when moving as a result of victimization, intangible costs of pain and suffering, and other similar costs are also not included. ----------- Creation System Name : NCJRS BBS This system is : NCJRS BBS This user is : bjs topic no 203 Topic Name : Victims current date Tue Nov 21 06:55:29 1995 Entry # : 640 prepared Feb 1 13:08:16 1995 Author : Admin Subject :Costs of Crime to Victims (ASCII) Read by : Admin : at Wed Feb 1 13:07:56 1995 gshackelford : at Mon Feb 6 15:06:38 1995 hdingwell : at Wed Feb 8 09:45:35 1995 sschofield : at Thu Feb 9 11:01:45 1995 wbrownin : at Fri Feb 10 08:09:37 1995 smeyerle : at Tue Feb 14 13:47:29 1995 lmankin : at Wed Feb 15 16:16:39 1995 lnebon : at Thu Feb 16 00:56:35 1995 avara : at Fri Feb 17 11:54:44 1995 phil : at Fri Feb 17 15:11:12 1995 stownsend : at Fri Feb 17 15:53:00 1995 dcork : at Sat Feb 18 00:30:11 1995 rjackson : at Sat Feb 18 01:04:14 1995 cindy : at Sat Feb 18 08:28:41 1995 mdinchak : at Sat Feb 18 17:18:45 1995 dsarokin : at Sun Feb 19 17:07:21 1995 supchurch : at Thu Feb 23 20:51:47 1995 dlopez : at Mon Feb 27 21:37:38 1995 jsobczyk : at Tue Feb 28 00:26:49 1995 cbissell : at Wed Mar 1 10:09:12 1995 mlofland : at Wed Mar 1 10:18:59 1995 jmiller : at Wed Mar 1 10:47:55 1995 khartke : at Wed Mar 1 11:09:02 1995 dengland : at Wed Mar 1 15:43:22 1995 lubyn : at Thu Mar 2 14:03:30 1995 mabel : at Sat Mar 4 17:30:20 1995 lluther : at Mon Mar 6 00:34:06 1995 aderegow : at Mon Mar 6 02:16:58 1995 andre : at Mon Mar 6 23:00:11 1995 pmenice : at Tue Mar 7 12:15:58 1995 deaner : at Tue Mar 7 16:30:33 1995 dcitro : at Tue Mar 7 23:24:22 1995 gzink : at Wed Mar 8 08:22:10 1995 hstone : at Wed Mar 8 16:14:02 1995 kquinn : at Thu Mar 9 09:33:57 1995 rmorgan : at Thu Mar 9 13:12:39 1995 mseverino : at Thu Mar 9 22:06:41 1995 jerhart : at Thu Mar 9 23:20:26 1995 hsanchez : at Fri Mar 10 15:42:42 1995 tdoran : at Fri Mar 10 18:51:28 1995 dwilliams : at Fri Mar 10 23:36:05 1995 mshah : at Fri Mar 10 23:40:31 1995 jly : at Sat Mar 11 06:30:37 1995 jwest : at Sun Mar 12 17:10:44 1995 dcleveland : at Mon Mar 13 02:10:18 1995 dteasley : at Mon Mar 13 11:14:51 1995 pfaganii : at Mon Mar 13 18:59:06 1995 lyra : at Mon Mar 13 22:28:57 1995 golubiew : at Tue Mar 14 11:22:33 1995 ajtrask : at Wed Mar 15 13:11:40 1995 l : at Wed Mar 15 23:29:56 1995 cmahar : at Sun Mar 19 01:46:33 1995 jfaucette : at Mon Mar 20 14:13:04 1995 mkauffman : at Tue Mar 21 12:22:45 1995 dany : at Sat Mar 25 09:39:29 1995 therese : at Tue Mar 28 22:04:29 1995 hparmer : at Fri Mar 31 01:39:35 1995 jackson : at Fri Mar 31 09:41:32 1995 cwebster : at Fri Mar 31 13:17:49 1995 smanderson : at Fri Mar 31 14:45:07 1995 ccutler : at Sat Apr 1 20:29:49 1995 rshaw : at Sun Apr 2 01:08:07 1995 dinberg : at Tue Apr 4 11:27:40 1995 rrandall : at Fri Apr 7 12:17:26 1995 lcauffiel : at Mon Apr 10 23:23:45 1995 sford : at Tue Apr 11 10:31:36 1995 gsherk : at Thu Apr 13 14:05:23 1995 jcreecha : at Tue Apr 18 17:38:09 1995 gcancello : at Thu Apr 20 11:53:35 1995 tubesc : at Sat Apr 22 18:44:33 1995 wverrei : at Thu May 25 13:00:20 1995 asflowers : at Tue Jun 20 16:22:30 1995 francis : at Mon Jun 26 17:06:17 1995 ekamras : at Mon Jul 3 14:36:56 1995 joesager : at Thu Jul 13 01:20:26 1995 ktomono : at Thu Jul 13 19:29:36 1995 vworkman : at Tue Jul 25 15:38:44 1995 edburrow : at Thu Jul 27 11:14:31 1995 abk : at Fri Jul 28 13:48:36 1995 aatkisson : at Thu Aug 3 08:22:30 1995 sparodi : at Sat Aug 5 02:28:35 1995 jford : at Sun Aug 13 02:36:45 1995 msw : at Tue Aug 15 17:23:05 1995 jmurtagh : at Wed Sep 6 16:55:19 1995 abolin : at Thu Sep 7 18:20:34 1995 sigmon : at Tue Sep 12 15:48:07 1995 smith : at Thu Sep 14 16:00:14 1995 jhakala : at Sun Oct 1 06:30:37 1995 crix : at Tue Oct 10 20:44:50 1995 jcampisi : at Sat Oct 14 11:37:29 1995 jshepard : at Fri Oct 20 14:19:54 1995 chrisperry : at Sat Nov 4 11:45:39 1995 mcummings : at Sat Nov 11 13:14:44 1995 ktownsend : at Thu Nov 16 05:59:29 1995 kcrisafulli : at Tue Nov 21 06:39:43 1995 Owning Topic : T=Victims - 203 E= 640 Type = e