Abstract

We undertake a survey that estimates WTP and WTA measures for changes in the risk of being a victim of a robbery or theft in the UK. Respondents are less likely to protest when they are asked to reveal their WTP rather than WTA. Employing various protest-treatment techniques, we estimate the mean WTP for reducing current risks of theft and robbery by 50% to range between £38 and £220; for WTA, they are between £351 and £2,175. Higher values for robbery reflect people’s aversion to the violence implicit in this type of crime. The annual value of avoiding a statistical case of crime ranges between £7,011 for theft and £90,087 for robbery. WTP-WTA ratios range from 1:4.8 to 1:16.9 and are influenced by type of crime and elicitation method. In turn, these results support the economic sense of a pre-emptive crime policy that prevents, rather than compensates for, crime occurrence.

Jose Ignacio Hernandez

PhD

Environmental and Natural Resource Economist, currently pursuing my PhD at TU Delft. My research interests are focused in public policy assessment, choice modelling and non-market valuation.