Social and economic impacts of crime on wider society

Higher Modern Studies

• Crime is a constant concern on the minds of Britons. YouGov research about voters’ top concerns frequently shows that around a quarter of voters rank crime in the top three national concerns.
• However, this concern is perhaps exaggerated, as only a small minority of people are likely to be victims of crime.
• As we know, the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey found that around 11.9% of adults in Scotland were victims of crime in 2019/20.
• Crime has three types of impact on individuals and wider society:
• Costs in anticipation of crime, for example the cost of burglar alarms.
• Costs as a consequence of crime, for example the cost of property stolen or damaged.
• Costs in response to crime, for example costs to the police and criminal justice system.

Social impacts

• Crime can have hugely long lasting, negative impacts on local communities, such as law-abiding citizens moving away.
• Crime can have two other social effects: Crime can bring people together to combat the issues – called ‘cohesion’ or lead to division.
• According to the Department for Education, fear of crime is the biggest “predictor of community cohesion.”
• Some people, for example, choose to come together to try and tackle crime. Office for National Statistics data says 25% of English and Welsh households are Neighbourhood Watch members.
• In some areas, breakdown in trust for organisations like the police and fear of crime has led to the rise of vigilante groups, such as paedophile hunters and those who patrolled London in the aftermath of the 2011 riots.

Watch a historical RT news clip about the vigilante groups who patrolled London in response to the 2011 riots

Watch a historical clip from The Guardian about the rise of vigilante paedophile hunters in England

Further social impacts

• Crime can lead to division and discrimination by creating a culture of us vs them.
• Hate crime and rising gang cultures are examples of this.
• Fear of crime can lead young people to join a gang for protection. This can potentially become a self-fulfilling prophecy with their gang membership potentially making them more likely to commit crime and be victimised.
• In England, it’s estimated that around 27,000 young people are gang members with 6,560 known by youth offending teams or children's services.
• Crime can also lead to increased surveillance in a society to keep the “good” citizens safe. Unfortunately, this has always been universally welcomed or shared equally.
• The UK has an estimated 6 million CCTV cameras, with 2020 research finding London has the third highest number of CCTV cameras of any city in the world
• A further example is stop and search, which has been heavily criticised by some who argue that the police stereotyped groups and used stop and search in a discriminatory way, particularly against young black men.

Watch a Channel 4 News clip about the Met Police using facial recognition in parts of London

Watch a BBC Stories documentary about the experiences of some people stopped and searched, mainly in London

Economic impacts

• Deterring and punishing crime is costly and diverts public money from other services.
• The Scottish Government’s budget for 2022-23 gives the justice system £3.1 billion.
• Scottish Government estimates suggest that each Scottish prisoner place costs £37,334.
• There were 1,891 emergency admissions to Scottish hospitals because of assault in 2020/21, pushing up the cost of healthcare spending.
• According to the Home Office, robberies and burglaries against businesses make up 40% of the costs of crime.
• As a consequence of robberies, businesses lose money and this limits their ability to employ staff, causing further economic harm. To recover the costs, businesses might also increase the costs of products.
• An example of this is uninsured drivers. People driving uninsured costs approximately £400million – a cost that it added to the premiums of insured drivers.
• The 2018 UK House Price Index showed that 83% of areas in England where reported crimes rose saw house values decrease.
• In 2019, the Scottish Government estimated that the total social and economic cost of crime was over £3.8 billion.

Crimes against businesses

• The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) 2021 Retail Crime Survey found that in 2019-20, the cost of retail crime and prevention of it cost £2.5 billion.
• The BRC’s Survey found that retail crime cost £1.3 billion
• The biggest contributing factor to retail crime was customer theft, i.e. shoplifting. Shoplifting costs UK businesses £935 million
• £1.3 billion was spent on preventative measures by businesses in 2019-20, e.g. CCTV systems.
• The costs of these crimes is ultimately put onto the customers, resulting in a higher cost of living.
• Moreover, if the costs of being victimised by retail crime become too much, businesses could make staff redundant or close down for good, contributing to unemployment.