Excessive cost of effective prosecution of offenders
Name(s):
Excessive financial costs of crime prevention and law enforcement
Incidence
The financial costs of crime in the UK (from funding the police to higher prices in the shops to compensate for shoplifting) is estimated to exceed £20 billion.
The USA spends more than $163 billion a year as a consequence of crime. This is almost two thirds of the defence budget, and five times as much as the federal government spends on education.
Claim
Law expands in proportion to the resources available for its enforcement.