Cost Benefit Analysis and Crime Control (Urban Institute Press)

Criminal justice programs, to be adopted in today's climate, need demonstrate not only efficacy but return on tax dollars invested. Cost-benefit analysis, the economist's tool for determining the price of outcomes, yields a single metric that allows different interventions to be compared directly. Yet CBA is difficult, even controversial, to apply to crime control, as it involves placing monetary value on intangibles such as pain, suffering, well-being, and human life. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control guides researchers through cost collection, design of bias-free studies, measurement of effects, approaches to estimating program benefits, and methods for combining the elements into a unified analysis