Estimating the Financial Costs of Crime Victimization

The goal of the proposed 18-month project study is to design and develop a plan for a comprehensive study to assess the financial costs of victimization. The project team, consisting of staff from the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), the Urban Institute (Urban), and the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC), will develop a set of recommendations and procedures that will define: the scope of the proposed study; research and analytic methods to be employed; types of victimization; types of financial costs, both tangible and intangible; and possible methods for the development of a toolkit for use by states to calculate estimates of state-specific financial costs of victimization.

To meet the stated project goal and ensure that key stakeholders from a variety of perspectives have input into the design of the study the project team will carry out the follow tasks: (1) establish and work closely with an Advisory Board; (2) conduct a comprehensive literature review regarding previous work related to identifying the financial costs of victimization; (3) hold three in-person meetings of the Advisory Board to define the scope of the proposed study and methods for identifying victim types, incidence and costs; (4) hold four webinars for Advisory Board members to provide information to prepare them for in-person meetings; (5) conduct a survey of victim services providers; (6) conduct a survey of state Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) directors; (7) conduct focus groups with key stakeholder groups, to include state Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) administrators, State Administering Agency (SAA) directors, and members of the National Crime Victim Bar Association (NCVBA), who are civil attorneys who represent victims of crime and abuse in civil lawsuits; (8) write a final report for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) that will include a proposed methodology and cost estimate for conducting a comprehensive study of the financial costs of crime victimization, along with an assessment of the feasibility of developing a toolkit for use by states to calculate estimates of state-specific financial costs of victimization; (9) hold monthly meetings with NIJ and Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) staff to keep them apprised of project status and ongoing efforts; (10) hold bi-monthly meeting among project staff to coordinate efforts, track progress of work assignments, and resolve any issues that arise over the course of the project. ca/ncf