Measuring the Economic Impact of PLEI

Research and Statistics Division Susan McDonald

PLEAC, October 2012

The Department of Justice as Funder• The Department provides annual funding in each province to 1

organization whose designation is recommended by the province. • In the Yukon, Northwest Territory and Nunavut, PLEI is funded

through the Access to Justice Agreements between the respective governments and the Department.

• The Department also provides PLEI project funding to non-governmental organizations from: The Justice Partnership and Innovation Program; the Victims Fund; the Family Violence Initiative; the Youth Justice Fund; the Supporting Families Fund; the Aboriginal Justice Strategy Fund; and the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund.

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Current Work on Costing1) Costs of Crime, 2008

http://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/pi/rs/rep-rap/2011/rr10_5/rr10_5.pdf

2) The Costs of Firearm-related Crime in Canada, 2008

3) Spousal violence (ex and current spousal abuse);

4) Non-spousal violent victimization – homicide, sexual assault, assault, robbery, criminal harassment; disaggregated by gender

5) The Economic Impact of Youth Crime on the Criminal Justice System

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Impact Categories

Mental Health Care Other Personal Costs

Loss of Affection/Enjoyment to Family Members

Social Services Other Government Expenditures

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Impacts borne by Justice System Criminal Justice System Civil Justice System

Impacts borne by Primary Victims Health Care Productivity Losses Intangible Costs

Impacts borne by Other Individuals and Systems Funeral Services Other People Harmed/Threatened Loss to Employers Negative Impact on Children Exposed to violence

Data Sources 2009 General Social Survey, Cycle 23 Uniform Crime Reporting Survey 2 Examples of other major data sources:

Police Administration Survey Adult Criminal Court Survey Court Personnel and Expenditure Survey (CPES) Adult Correctional Services Survey (ACS) and the Integrated

Correctional Services Survey (ICS) National Ambulatory Care Reporting System Discharge Abstract Database National Physician Database Government finance reports Existing literature, studies and government reports

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Key Challenges Lack of data/information

Lack of access to data

Limitations of the General Social Survey

Limitations of small, non-representative studies

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Spousal Violence: Number of Incidents and Victims – The Attrition Pyramid

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V.Convictions

11,373 – no

victim informationIV.

Court cases 21,599 – no victim information

III.Incidents cleared by charge

(UCR2, 2009): 34,859with 33,809 victims

II.Incidents reported to police (UCR2, 2009): 46,918

I.Self-reported incidents (GSS, 2009): 942,000

with 335,697 victims – by gender

Summary 1: Who is bearing the IMPACTS?

Total estimated costs of spousal violence in Canada: Justice System Primary Victims Third-Party

About 60.6% of the total costs attributable to intangible costs for primary victims and family members

About 63.7% of costs attributable to spousal violence against females

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Impact borne by third-party

$890 (12.0%) Impact borne by

Justice System$545 (7.3%)

Impact borne by victims $5,985

(80.7%)Third-party Justice System Victims

Summary 2: Who is paying the COSTS?

Total tangible costs (excluding negative impact on children exposed to spousal violence) -- actual financial transactions were made

For the tangible costs, 78.8% attributable to spousal violence against females

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Intangible Costs$5,497 M (74.1%)

Lost Future Income to Children

$228 M (3.1%)

State63.8%Individual

29.4%

Private sector6.9%

ANNUAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUEEXCLUSIVE RATINGS

Over 200 Crime–Related Programs and Policies

Programs programs

taxpayer dollars

that reduce crime and save taxpayers money.

programs

BEST 2011Crime

Policies to Adopt

SWashington State

Institute for Public PolicyPublications:

www.wsipp.wa.gov

Reports Are Available on:

Criminal JusticeJuvenile JusticeChild WelfareEducationMental HealthSubstance AbusePrevention…More on the way

A Framework for Estimating the Economic Impact of PLEI• Locate and meta-analyze all reasonably rigorous outcome

evaluations conducted from similar countries (UK, Canada, US, Australia).

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• Calculate, on average, impact of PLEI activities on five domains. Without PLEI, economic impact will cost $X ( ); With PLEI, economic impact with legal problem will cost $Y ( ).

• Reduced economic impact = net benefit for justice system, citizen and third parties: Estimate that PLEI costs $X per participant; benefits include total $X to

taxpayers (lower justice costs), $X to citizens and $X to third parties. A total benefit-to-cost ratio of $X to $Y.

• Risk: About X% of the time you lose money (costs exceed benefits). Run the model 500 times testing the expected bottom line for the

known or estimated risk and uncertainty in our findings.

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EvaluationsChallenges in PLEI evaluations1) assess changes in knowledge attitudes, skills, confidence and

behaviours;2) attribute any change to a specific PLE project or program, in other

words to ascribe impact to a PLE activity

To demonstrate a change will generally require:3) A baseline measure and a follow-up measure of participants that

tests specific areas of knowledge, skills, etc., or asks participants to assess their own level of knowledge, skills, etc.

4) Similar measures with a control or comparison group to identify whether any change is the result of the intervention.

5) To demonstrate whether knowledge, skills, etc. are actually used by participants to prevent or deal with legal issues in the future requires longitudinal research, e.g. participants are followed up three months after the intervention.

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Questions?

The TeamTing Zhang, PhDJosh Hoddenbagh, MAKatie Scrim, BA

Susan McDonald, LLB, PhD Principal Researcher Research and Statistics Division Department of Justice Canada 284 Wellington, 6th Floor Ottawa, ON K1A OH8 Tel: (613) 957-9315 Email: smcdonal@justice.gc.ca