Crime Harm Indexes – a critical assessment

• In Event: Quantitative Methods WG Panel 1: Innovative Measurement and Data Utilization in Criminology

Abstract

In 2016, Sherman et al. suggested the construction of a Crime Harm Index (CHI) based on sentencing data or on the recommended sentence length for each type of crime included in the index. Such indexes would provide a more reliable measure of the harm caused by crime than the simple crime counts that form the basis of the usual crime statistics. Since then, CHIs have been adopted in several countries including Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, and in different jurisdictions in the US. CHI data have been used to guide police resource management and in evaluations of different kinds of police methods. In general, the scientific literature concerning CHIs is mostly positive, and the few critics are mainly concerned about the usefulness of specific versions of CHIs, e.g. in Sweden.
The present paper discusses some more fundamental questions concerning CHIs: Can such indexes be used to compare harm across crime categories, across places, and over time, as claimed by their proponents? Do the indexes actually measure harm? And if not, what is really measured?

Author

• Lars Holmberg, University of Copenhagen