What does the world spend on criminal justice?

Abstract

This study produces an estimate of the global costs of public expenditure on criminal justice. The global estimate is an extrapolation from data provided by the governments of seventy countries. At the country-level there is a strong relationship between the level of available public money and expenditure upon public policing, courts, prosecution and prisons. The relationship is explored using six regression models, and criminal justice expenditure in other countries is estimated using the best models. Global criminal justice expenditure in 1997 is estimated at $360 billion (the equivalent of $424 billion in 2004 prices), of which 62 percent was spent on policing, 3 percent on prosecutions, 18 percent on courts, and 17 percent on prisons. As the first systematic empirical estimate of global criminal justice expenditure, it is hoped that the present research may spur better data collection practices and further research.