Corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined, by death, injury, or dollars lost.

The study found aggravated assault to be the most costly crime category (murder was not included among the crime categories), with a total societal cost of $76,829 per offense (first reported in 1992 U.S. dollars).

Estimating costs Researchers have estimated varying annual costs of crime in the United States that range from $690 billion to $3.41 trillion. One reason that developing an accurate estimate is challenging is the difficulty of determining the intangible costs of crime.

Overall, personal crime in the U.S. cost almost $2.6 trillion in 2017.

The results of the calculations depend on the applied approach to crime and the interpretations of the social impacts of the delinquency. According to the authors calculations the social cost caused by crime was about 2.17 billion USA dollar: ($) (1.6 billion euro (EUR) in 2009.

Incarcerating individuals awaiting trial costs taxpayers $13.6 billion each year. This is especially wasteful in light of effective, low-cost ways of ensuring that defendants appear at trial, including a simple notification system that reminds people of their court dates.

More than 97 percent of federal criminal convictions are obtained through plea bargains, and the states are not far behind at 94 percent.

From about 1995 to 2004, 47% of second degree murder cases were resolved through plea bargains, compared to only 41% of first degree murder cases.

With almost any crime, there are lesser charges that can be used during the bargaining process to reach a plea. Typically, the plea bargain means that you will plead “guilty” to that lesser charge, even if you maintain personally that you did not commit the crime.

* Forty-one percent of murder convictions occurred at a trial rather than through a guilty plea. Trial convictions accounted for 12% of rape and robbery convictions and 11% of assault convictions. * Eighty-one percent of violent felons were sentenced to incarceration with 50% going to prison and 31% to jail.