By Max Chambers, Ben Ullmann, Irvin Waller; Edited by Gavin Lockhart

The estimated cost of crime to the UK is around £78 billion a year. This equates to £3,000 per household every year – an extra 20p on the basic rate of income tax. There is also untold pain, suffering and damage caused to an estimated 10 million victims of crime and their families each year.

The Government’s most recent attempt to set out a strategy for tackling crime – the youth crime action plan – announced unsustained ad hoc funding, did little to clarify responsibility for cutting crime and increased pressures on departmental budgets. The lack of knowledge as to what to do next persists – there is little understanding of how to extend successful pilot trials, how to deliver the right interventions to the right people, or how to encourage and train local practitioners to use evidence-based interventions to prevent crime. A number of structural, financial and political barriers remain and Less Crime, Lower Costs addresses these systemic shortcomings through an anaylsis of prevention programmes that have proved effective and cost-effective in other countries.