Counting the costs of crime in Australia: a 2011 estimate

This report estimates the costs of crime for the calendar year 2011. Executive summary This report seeks to estimate how much crime costs the Australian economy by calculating the number of crimes that come to the attention of the authorities and, using crime victimisation survey data, the number of crimes that are not recorded officially. A dollar figure is then calculated for each estimated crime event and an indication given of the total cost of each specific crime type in terms of actual loss, intangible losses, loss of output caused through the criminal conduct and other related costs such as medical expenses, where relevant. Added to these costs are the costs of preventing and responding to crime in the community including the costs of maintaining the criminal justice system agencies of police, prosecution, courts and correctional agencies, as well as a proportion of the costs of Australian and state and territory government agencies that have crime-related functions. Finally, a deduction is made for the value of property recovered in the case of property crime, as well as the amount of funds recovered from criminals under federal, state and territory proceeds of crime legislation. More detailed information about how each of these estimates was derived is provided in the main body of the report. Official attention paid to specific crime types, particularly drug-related crime and organised crime, affects both the reporting rate and also the cost of policing and correctional responses. In this sense, individual crime type costs and prevention and response costs are not mutually exclusive. Arguably, as individual crime types attract more attention, reporting rates increase and prevention and control of the crimes in question are seen as being deserving of increased resource

UK security breach investigations report: an analysis of data compromise cases

This report, rather than relying on questionnaires and self-reporting, concerns cases that were investigated by the forensic investigation team at 7Safe. Whilst removing any inaccuracies arising from self-reporting, the authors acknowledge that the limitation of the sample size remains. It is hoped that the unbiased reporting by independent investigators has yielded interesting facts about modern security breaches. All data in this study is based on genuine completed breach investigations conducted by the compromise investigation team over the last 18 months

The Drug Problem and Organized Crime, Illicit Financial Flows, Corruption and Terrorism

An estimated quarter of a billion people, or around 5 per cent of the global adult population, used drugs at least once in 2015. Even more worrisome is the fact that about 29.5 million of those drug users, or 0.6 per cent of the global adult population, suffer from drug use disorders. This means that their drug use is harmful to the point that they may experience drug dependence and require treatment.The magnitude of the harm caused by drug use is underlined by the estimated 28 million years of "healthy" life (disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)) lost worldwide in 2015 as a result of premature death and disability caused by drug use.Of those years lost, 17 million were attributable solely to drug use disorders across all drug types. DALYs attributable to morbidity and mortality resulting from all causes of drug use have increased overall in the past decade.Yet, with fewer than one in six persons with drug use disorders provided with treatment each year, the availability of and access to science-based services for the treatment of drug use disorders and related conditions remain limited

Human Trafficking by the Numbers: The Initial Benchmark of Prevalence and Economic Impact for Texas

Prevalence HighlightsCurrently, there are approximately 79,000 minor and youth victims of sex trafficking in Texas.Currently, there are approximately 234,000 workers who are victims of labor trafficking in Texas.Currently, there arean estimated 313,000 victims of human trafficking in Texas.Cost HighlightsMinor and youth sex trafficking costs the state of Texas approximately $6.6 billion. Traffickers exploit approximately$600 million from victims of labor trafficking in Texas.BackgroundThough human trafficking is widespread in geographically large states with large urban centers like Texas, the true scope of this hidden crime is largely unconfirmed as data on human trafficking are difficult to ascertain. Existing data gathered in anti-trafficking efforts focus almost exclusively on identified victims, shedding light on only a fraction of the problem. The first phase of the Statewide Human Trafficking Mapping Project of Texas focused on providing empiricallygrounded data as a benchmark about the extent of human trafficking across the state. The following three primary research questions guided our data collection efforts, which included queries of existing databases, interviews, focus groups, and web-based surveys.1.What is the prevalence of human trafficking in Texas?2.What is the economic impact of human trafficking in Texas?3.What is our understanding of human trafficking in Texas?MethodsThe findings in this report were derived using a multi-methods approach to quantify the prevalence and economic impact of human trafficking in Texas. Higher-than-average risk industry and community segments were chosen for sex and labor markets. We defined community segments asgroups of people considered to be at higher-than-average risk of trafficking because of risk indicators found in trafficking cases (e.g. homelessness). More specifically, rather than attempting to establish prevalence of trafficking among the 27.4 million people living in Texas, for the purposes of demonstrating our methodology, establishing some benchmarks on human trafficking prevalence and economic impact estimates, and providing a concrete example of our planned activities moving forward, victimization rates were applied to a select few community segments that are at higher-than-average risk of trafficking.The methodology has addressed the critical industry and community segments to accurately estimate prevalencewhile reducing overlap between the chosen segments

Sex Trafficking of Children in the United States: Overview and Issues for Congress

[Excerpt] This report provides an overview of sex trafficking of children in the United States. It first conceptualizes the issue, discussing the victims and perpetrators involved. It then outlines the federal response to investigating and prosecuting perpetrators as well as providing services to victims. The report concludes with a discussion of select issues concerning the federal response to sex trafficking of minors in the United States

The economic impact of cybercrime and cyber espionage

Introduction Is cybercrime, cyber espionage, and other malicious cyber activities what some call “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history,” or is it what others say is a “rounding error in a fourteen trillion dollar economy?” The wide range of existing estimates of the annual loss—from a few billion dollars to hundreds of billions—reflects several difficulties. Companies conceal their losses and some are not aware of what has been taken. Intellectual property is hard to value. Some estimates relied on surveys, which provide very imprecise results unless carefully constructed. One common problem with cybersecurity surveys is that those who answer the questions “self-select,” introducing a possible source of distortion into the results. Given the data collection problems, loss estimates are based on assumptions about scale and effect— change the assumption and you get very different results. These problems leave many estimates open to question. The Components of Malicious Cyber Activity In this initial report we start by asking what we should count in estimating losses from cybercrime and cyber espionage. We can break malicious cyber activity into six parts: The loss of intellectual property and business confidential information Cybercrime, which costs the world hundreds of millions of dollars every year The loss of sensitive business information, including possible stock market manipulation Opportunity costs, including service and employment disruptions, and reduced trust for online activities The additional cost of securing networks, insurance, and recovery from cyber attacks Reputational damage to the hacked company Put these together and the cost of cybercrime and cyber espionage to the global economy is probably measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. To put this in perspective, the World Bank says that global GDP was about $70 trillion in 2011. A$400 billion loss—the high end of the range of probable costs—would be a fraction of a percent of global income. But this begs several important questions about the full benefit to the acquirers and the damage to the victims from the cumulative effect of cybercrime and cyber espionage

Online reputation management: estimating the impact of management responses on consumer reviews

We investigate the relationship between a firm’s use of management responses and its online reputation. We focus on the hotel industry and present several findings. First, hotels are likely to start responding following a negative shock to their ratings. Second, hotels respond to positive, negative, and neutral reviews at roughly the same rate. Third, by exploiting variation in the rate with which hotels respond on different review platforms and variation in the likelihood with which consumers are exposed to management responses, we find a 0.12-star increase in ratings and a 12% increase in review volume for responding hotels. Interestingly, when hotels start responding, they receive fewer but longer negative reviews. To explain this finding, we argue that unsatisfied consumers become less likely to leave short indefensible reviews when hotels are likely to scrutinize them. Our results highlight an interesting trade-off for managers considering responding: fewer negative ratings at the cost of longer and more detailed negative feedback.Accepted manuscrip

Health Care’s Other “Big Deal”: Direct Primary Care Regulation in Contemporary American Health Law

Direct primary care is a promising, market-based alternative to the fee-for-service payment structure that shapes doctor–patient relationships in America. Instead of billing patients and insurers service by service, direct primary care doctors charge their patients a periodic, prenegotiated fee in exchange for providing a wide range of healthcare services and increased availability compared to traditional practices. This “subscription” model is intended to eliminate the administrative burdens associated with insurer interaction, which, in theory, allows doctors to spend more time with their patients and less time doing paperwork. Direct practices have become increasingly popular since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This growth has been driven by legislation in several states that resolves a number of legal questions that slowed the model’s growth and by the ACA’s recognition of the model as a permissible way to cover primary care in “approved” health plans. Yet legal scholars have hardly focused on direct primary care. Given the model’s growth, however, the time is ripe for a more focused legal inquiry. This Note begins that inquiry. After tracing the model’s evolution and its core components, this Note substantively examines the laws in states that regulate direct practices and analyzes how those laws address a number of potential policy concerns. It then analyzes direct primary care’s broader role in the contemporary American healthcare marketplace. Based upon that analysis, this Note concludes that direct primary care is a beneficial innovation that harmonizes well with a cooperative-federalism-based healthcare policy model

Personal Character and Firm Performance. The Economic Implications of Having Fraudulent Board Members

Unique proprietary data on Swedish board members reveal that a non-trivial proportion of board members in Swedish listed firms have been convicted of serious crimes. Analyzing the data shows that board members with personal fraudulent behavior are more likely to be males than females. We also find that the greater the proportion of fraudulent board members, the lower is the profitability and the higher are the earnings (and cash flows) volatility of the firm. However, the negative effect of fraudulent behavior on profitability is mitigated when fraudulent board members have a larger stake in the firm’s equity. Finally, we find that the earnings of firms with more fraudulent board members are lower and less value-relevant. Given the strong legal enforcement in Sweden, our results raise serious concerns about the effects of board members’ personal fraudulent behavior on firm performance and risk-taking in other countries, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom.Fraudulent behavior; Fraud; Crimes; Convicted board members; Corporate governance; Profitability; Earnings volatility