Revealed: the true cost of crime across the UK

Recorded crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland cost nearly £15bn in 2007, equivalent to nearly £275 for every person, according to new research.

The study by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA)— which uses crime data from each police force, gathered using the Freedom of Information Act—shows that violence against the person was responsible for the highest economic and social costs, at around £155 per person. Residents of Nottinghamshire suffered from the highest cost of crime, at £390 per person. London crime costs were £388 per person, though the report says this could partly be due to visitors swelling London’s daytime and evening population. Humberside had the third highest cost at £380 per person. Many, predominantly rural, areas saw a lower cost of crime. In North Yorkshire crime cost just £130 per resident, £186 in Dyfed Powys and £194 in Surrey.

The report calls for police forces to be brought under local control—to cut the “bureaucracy and distorted police priorities” caused by central control—and for lessons to be learnt from successful reforms abroad. Corin Taylor, report co-author and the TPA’s research director, says: “New York cut crime by 50% in just five years through ‘broken windows’ policing, which targeted low-level crimes, simultaneously making it harder for serious criminals to operate.”