average burglary cost
If we knew how much a crime costs society, their reasoning went, maybe we could better decide how much money to spend trying to stop it. They found that each burglary in the United Statesâa car break-in, for exampleâcosts $41,288. For armed robberies the cost increases eightfold, to $335,733. Every aggravated assault costs $145,379. Each rape costs $448,532. Then there is murder. The researchers, led by sociologist Matt DeLisi, put the price tag at a whopping $17,252,656. That means in 2009, according to the FBI, murder cost the United States almost $263 billionânearly as much the federal government annually spends on Medicaid.