Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 16

The most obvious cost of crime to society is the money it takes to run the criminal justice system, including the following big-ticket items:

 Police

 Jails, prisons, and the staff to run them

 Prosecutors

 Judges and court staff

 Defense attorneys to represent charged defendants at trial and on appeal

 Probation officers

 Juvenile justice counselors

Plus, in the United States, each of the three levels of government — local, state, and federal — may run its own justice system, which may include some or all of the preceding expenses.

In addition to governmental costs, society bears many other financial impacts of crime. For example, think of the lost productivity and lost tax revenue that occurs when a person decides to sell drugs rather than earn wages lawfully. Or think of the costs of providing medical care to victims of violence or the costs of developing cybersecurity for a corporation to protect its computer systems. The financial impact of crime is quite startling when you dive into it. In Chapter 3, I provide more details on the true cost of crime to all of society.