The cost of crime in Hong Kong? HK$380 billion, City University study shows
Research funded by Correctional Services Department quantifies social cost of crime in city
The cost of crime is hitting Hong Kong taxpayers hard – at least HK$380 billion from 2012 to 2016, according to the first study to put a price tag on crime in the city.
The study, funded by the Correctional Services Department (CSD), took into account legal procedures, rehabilitation and crime prevention measures in calculating the cost. It also found that a drop in the reoffending rate among former inmates had saved the city an estimated HK$74.3 billion in potential costs over the same five-year period.
“This is highly likely the first such research in Asia,” said lead researcher Professor Eric Chui Wing-hong from City University.
Starting from August last year, the university team spent a year surveying 897 inmates and 91 professionals from non-governmental organisations. Researchers also interviewed more than 1,300 residents on the phone.
They estimated that each crime committed in the city cost society about HK$239,000. But Chui noted that a 2005 Census and Statistics Department study found that the number of crime victims was 4.6 times the number of people arrested.
Taking this into consideration, as well as the total of 343,666 crimes reported over the past five years, they arrived at a total cost of HK$380 billion for that period.
Chui said the estimate was conservative, because the study did not include many other costs that were harder to quantify, such as psychological harm to the victims and their families, impact on the criminals’ families and distortion of social values.
The crime rate – measuring crimes per 100,000 people per year – fell from 1,061 in 2012 to 825 last year, the lowest since 1979.
Researchers also estimated that government rehabilitation schemes saved society a potential cost of HK$75.2 billion in the same period, based on the drop in the reoffending rate of released prisoners from 40 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2014. The CSD calculates the rate every two years.
Community education saved taxpayers another HK$17.3 billion in potential costs, the team estimated, based on the number of people aged 20 or younger arrested for crimes, which had fallen by 48 per cent to 3,366 last year.
The CSD’s spend of HK$18.2 billion in the five years was deducted from the combined savings, to arrive at the figure of HK$74.3 billion in actual costs saved.
“I would say [the amount saved] is massive and substantial,” Chui said.
Senior superintendent Kelvin Lam Wai-kwong of the CSD’s rehabilitation branch said: “The preliminary information is positive. It seems like our efforts over the years have been working.”
Legislator Leung Yiu-chung, of the Neighbourhood and Worker’s Service Centre, acknowledged the CSD’s increased efforts in helping former inmates find jobs, but he called for help with their accommodation as well.
The government should increase subsidies for NGOs to help with re-employment, he added.
