Counting the costs of crime in Australia: A 2011 estimate

Research in Policy and Practice no.129

The Minister for Justice, Mr Michael Keenan MP, has released Counting the costs of crime in Australia: A 2011 estimate,
the fifth in a series by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) on the cost of crime to our community.

In 2011, the most costly crimes to the community were:

• Fraud ($6b)
• Drug Abuse ($3b)
• Assault ($3b)
• Criminal Damage (vandalism and graffiti) ($2.7b)
• Arson ($2.2b)

The estimated total cost of crime in 2011 was $47.6b or 3.4 percent of national GDP – this represents a 49% increase since 2001, where the total cost of crime was calculated as $31.8b (3.8% GDP).
However, in terms of percentage of GDP, the overall cost of crime decreased over the period 2001 to 2011.
The most extensive costs come from administering criminal justice agencies (police, courts and corrections), assisting victims, insurance and greater investment on crime prevention measures.
These costs doubled, from $12.8b to $24.6b, between 2001 and 2011. For the 2011 estimates, however, additional Government agency costs were included in the calculations, which explain some of the increase.

 The report is available on the AIC website www.aic.gov.au