The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth

Programs targeted at high-risk youth are designed to prevent high-school dropout, crime, drug abuse, and other forms of delinquency. Even if shown to be successful in reducing one or more social ill, a key policy question is whether the cost to society from that intervention program exceeds its benefits. Although the costs of intervention programs are often available, the benefits are more illusive. This paper provides estimates of the potential benefits from “saving” a high-risk youth, by estimating the lifetime costs associated with the typical career criminal, drug abuser, and high-school dropout. In the absence of controlled experimental data on the number of career criminals averted, one can ask the reverse question—How many career criminals must be prevented before the program “pays for itself?” Based on a 2% discount rate, the typical career criminal causes $1.3–$1.5 million in external costs; a heavy drug user, $370,000 to $970,000; and a high-school dropout, $243,000 to $388,000. Eliminating duplication between crimes committed by individuals who are both heavy drug users and career criminals results in an overall estimate of the “monetary value of saving a high-risk youth” of $1.7 to $2.3 million.     

美国对女性卖淫犯罪人的社区矫正制度及其借鉴意义

美国对女性卖淫犯罪人一般定轻罪或微罪,并且多数采取社区矫正制度,包括常规社区矫正和居住式社区矫正,其中居住式社区矫正机构与民间组织合作开展了很多针对卖淫女性的矫正项目并取得了良好的效果。我国可以借鉴美国的经验,将卖淫行为有限犯罪化,在刑法中建立轻罪序列,并对其适用社区矫正。