Calculate the cost of crime

Use the Harms After Victimization: Experience and Needs (HAVEN) cost calculators to aggregate total costs of crime and estimate cost impact of interventions.


The HAVEN cost calculators allow researchers and policy advocates to estimate various costs for a specific number of crimes and estimate the impact of interventions on crime costs. Both cost calculators use advanced statistical models developed by the HAVEN project team that estimate various components of crime victimization costs based on integrated criminal justice and medical claims data as well as nationally representative survey data.


Disclaimer: The estimates provided by these cost calculators are statistically modeled estimates and are not meant to be definitive claims about the exact cost of any one crime victimization. Confidence intervals are provided for all estimates to reflect this uncertainty.




Aggregate Cost Calculator

Provide the number of crimes of each type to calculate total victim costs.


The aggregate cost calculator multiplies the number of crimes by the average cost of victimization for each crime type. The costs are displayed by category of cost where the Total row is the sum of all other costs.






Comparative Cost Calculator

Provide the number of crimes of each type, before and after your intervention to estimate change in victim costs.


The comparative cost calculator will provide a difference in differences estimate of the change in victim costs after an intervention. The model assumes no change in crime for the control group after the intervention. The costs are displayed by category of cost where the Total row is the sum of all other costs.



Before Intervention

After Intervention




Please read more about the HAVEN project organizations below:

Harms After Victimization: Experience and Needs (HAVEN) is a National Institute of Justice funded project devoted to developing new methods of measuring the costs of criminal victimization. Researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago and Temple University have partnered to develop a new methodology to calculate the cost of crime victimization, linking statistical modeling of program effects with costs and benefits to jointly estimate harms. Read more about HAVEN on the About page.


NORC at the University of Chicago is an objective, nonpartisan research organization that delivers insights and analysis decision-makers trust. Read more about NORC at norc.org.


Temple University Department of Criminal Justice is committed to Deepening Our Understanding of Crime, Governance and Social Justice. Read more about Temple Criminal Justice at temple.edu.


About this data tool

This interactive data tool is a product of the Harms After Victimization: Experience and Needs (HAVEN) project team designed to give researchers and policy advocates tools to calculate various costs of criminal victimization. The estimates producted by these cost calculators use advanced statistical models that estimate costs from integrated criminal justice and medical claims data as well as nationally representative survey data.

The models upon which the calculator estimates are based are only an estimate of the cost of victimization for the four violent crimes available. Uncertainty in estimates are reflected in each estimate's confidence intervals. Although the models estimate costs across several domains (e.g., inpatient medical, mental health, productivity loss, etc.), there are likely many more domains of cost that are not covered by our cost models. Therefore, user discretion is advised.

These cost calculators will be continually updated as more data becomes available and can be incorporated into the cost modeling. Please check back for updates. To learn more about the HAVEN project, please visit the HAVEN project site.

For more information on NIJ funding for this work, please visit NIJ.

Contact us

Anthony Washburn
Senior Research Methodologist
Analytical Lead
washburn-anthony@norc.org

John Roman
Senior Fellow
Project Co-Lead
roman-john@norc.org

Caterina Roman
Professor of Criminal Justice
Project Co-Lead
croman@temple.edu

This tool was developed by Anthony Washburn, Kiegan Rice, and John Roman at NORC at the University of Chicago. Read more about NORC here.