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Abstract

The costs of violent crime victimisation are often left to a judge, tribunal or jury to determine; leading to the potential for considerable subjectivity and variation. Using unique panel data, this paper provides compensation estimates that can help reduce the subjectivity of awards by giving a benchmark for the compensation required to offset direct and intangible costs. First, individual-area fixed-effects models allowing for adaptation to crime are estimated to assess the effects of violent crime victimisation on diverse measures of wellbeing. These results are then subsequently used to calculate the monetary compensation required to offset the wellbeing losses. Estimates allowing for the endogeneity of income suggest that A$88,000 is required to compensate the average crime victim. We find some evidence that compensation estimates are larger if the wellbeing losses of female family members are considered, and are larger for females if the perpetrator of the crime is a stranger rather than a partner, friend or relative.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Johnston, D., Shields, M. A. & Suziedelyte, A. (2016). Victimisation, Wellbeing and Compensation: Using Panel Data to Estimate the Costs of Violent Crime. Economic Journal, which is to be published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1468-0297. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Publisher Keywords:	Violent Crime, Victimisation, Wellbeing, Compensation, Panel Data
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > Economics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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