What is meant by the costs of crime

What is meant by the costs of crimes is The opportunity cost of time lost to criminal activities, incarceration, crime prevention, and recovery after victimization. The threat of crime elicits private expenditures on locks, safety lighting, security fences, alarm systems, antivirus software programs, and armored car services.

Annual costs of crime in the United States that range from $690 billion to $3.41 trillion. One reason that developing an accurate estimate is challenging is the difficulty of determining the intangible costs of crime. Even just knowing how much crime occurs is difficult.