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.
2
Current Work on Costing
1) Costs of Crime, 2008 http://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/pi/rs/reprap/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
3
Impact Categories
 Impacts borne by Justice System


Criminal Justice System
Civil Justice System
 Impacts borne by Primary Victims



Health Care
Productivity Losses
Intangible Costs


Mental Health Care
Other Personal Costs
 Impacts borne by Other Individuals and Systems

Funeral Services


Other People Harmed/Threatened


Loss to Employers

Negative Impact on Children Exposed 
to violence
4
Loss of Affection/Enjoyment to
Family Members
Social Services
Other Government Expenditures
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
5
Key Challenges
 Lack of data/information
 Lack of access to data
 Limitations of the General Social Survey
 Limitations of small, non-representative studies
6
Spousal Violence: Number of Incidents and Victims –
The Attrition Pyramid
V.
Convictions
11,373 – no victim
information
IV.
Court cases
21,599 – no victim information
III.
Incidents cleared by charge
(UCR2, 2009): 34,859
with 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
7
Summary 1: Who is bearing the IMPACTS?
 Total estimated costs of spousal violence in Canada:
Impact borne
by third-party
$890 (12.0%)
 Justice System
 Primary Victims
 Third-Party
Impact borne
by Justice
System
$545 (7.3%)
Impact borne
by victims
$5,985
(80.7%)
Third-party
Justice System
Victims
 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
8
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
Lost Future Income to
Children
$228 M (3.1%)
Intangible Costs
$5,497 M (74.1%)
Individual
29.4%
Tangible Costs
$1,695 M (22.8%)
State
63.8%
9
Private sector
6.9%
ANNUAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUE
EXCLUSIVE RATINGS
Over 200 Crime–Related Programs and Policies
Washington State
Institute for
Public Policy
Publications:
www.wsipp.wa.gov
Reports Are
Available on:
Criminal Justice
Juvenile Justice
Child Welfare
Education
Mental Health
Substance Abuse
Prevention
…More on the way
S
Programs
programs
taxpayer dollars
programs
that reduce crime
and save taxpayers
money.
BEST 2011
Crime
Policies to
Adopt
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).
•
• 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.
11
Evaluations
Challenges in PLEI evaluations
1) 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:
1) 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.
2) Similar measures with a control or comparison group to identify whether any
change is the result of the intervention.
3) 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.
12
Questions?
The Team
Ting Zhang, PhD
Josh Hoddenbagh, MA
Katie 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
13