2019-06-01
Unit Costs of Delinquent Acts for Use in Economic Evaluations
Publication
Publication
Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics , Volume 22 - Issue 2 p. 71- 79
Background: Youth mental health interventions aimed at reducing
substance use and delinquency in adolescents compete with other
types of interventions for reimbursement from public funding.
Within the youth mental health domain, delinquent acts impose high
costs on society. These costs should be included in economic
evaluations conducted from a societal perspective. Although the
relevance of these costs is recognized, they are often left out
because the unit costs of delinquent acts are unknown.
Aims of the Study: This study aims to provide a method for
estimating the unit costs per perpetrator of 14 delinquent acts
common in the Netherlands and included in self reported
delinquency questionnaires: robbery/theft with violence, simple
theft/pickpocketing, receiving stolen goods, destruction/vandalism
of private or public property, disorderly conduct/discrimination,
arson, cybercrime, simple and aggravated assault, threat, forced
sexual contact, unauthorised driving, driving under the influence,
dealing in soft drugs, and dealing in hard drugs.
Methods: Information on government expenditures and the
incidence of crimes, number of perpetrators, and the percentage of
solved and reported crimes was obtained from the national database
on crime and justice of the Research and Documentation Centre of
the Ministry of Justice and Security, Statistics Netherlands, and the
Council for the Judiciary in the Netherlands. We applied a top-down
micro costing approach to calculate the point estimate of the unit
costs for each of the delinquent acts and, subsequently, estimated
the mean (SD) unit costs for each of the delinquent acts by taking
random draws from a triangular distribution while taking into
account a 10% uncertainty associated with the associated point
estimate.
Results: The mean (SD) unit costs per delinquent act per perpetrator
ranged between E495 (E1.30) for ‘‘Driving under the influence’’
and E33,813 (E78.30) for a ‘‘Cybercrime’’. These unit costs may
be considered as outliers as most unit costs ranged between E2,600
and E13,500 per delinquent act per perpetrator.
Discussion: This study is the first to estimate the unit costs per
delinquent act per perpetrator in the Netherlands. The results of this
study enable the inclusion of government expenditures associated
with crime and justice in economic evaluations conducted from a
societal perspective.
Implications for Health Care Provision and Use: Youth mental
health interventions aimed at reducing substance use and
delinquency in adolescents are increasingly subjected to economic
evaluations. These evaluations are used to inform decisions
concerning the allocation of scarce healthcare resources and should
cover all the costs and benefits for society, including those
associated with delinquent acts.
Implications for Health Policies: The results of this study facilitate
economic evaluations of youth mental health interventions aimed at
reducing substance use and delinquency in adolescents, conducted
from a societal perspective.
Implications for Further Research: Based on health-economic
evaluations conducted in the field of youth mental health and the
results of the current study, we recommend including the estimated
unit costs in guidelines for health-economic evaluations conducted
from a societal perspective. Future research could aim at examining
whether these unit costs require regular updating. The methodology
applied in this study allows for this.
Additional Metadata | |
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This study was funded by a public grant of the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW), project number 15700.4007 | |
hdl.handle.net/1765/116734 | |
Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics | |
Organisation | Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) |
Reckers-Droog, V., Goorden, M., Dijkgraaf, M., van Eeren, H., McCollister, K., & Hakkaart-van Roijen, L. (2019). Unit Costs of Delinquent Acts for Use in Economic Evaluations. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 22(2), 71–79. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/116734 |