Armed and Safe

Cost of Crime

The National Institute of Justice says that crime costs society 17 times as much as keeping criminals behind bars. Texas A&M criminologist Dr. Morgan Reynolds states that the chances of being imprisoned for a serious crime were cut in half during the period from 1950 to 1964. The number of serious crimes doubled. In the following decade, the chances of punishment halved again. The number of serious crimes doubled. In 1990, comparing the number of murders to the number of convictions and length of prison term, the average murderer could expect 1.8 years in prison. Rapists averaged 60 days in prison, robbers 23 days in prison, and muggers and arsonists averaged less than a week in prison.