Infographic Booklet of Research on Impacts and Costs of Handling Narcotics Crime in Indonesia

Even though narcotics crime does not produce any victim (victimless crime), but empirically it generates other impacts, sustained from the perspective of the offender, offender’s family, and even the community and government. When a person allegedly commits narcotics crime and is subject to legal process, this research captures costs expended by defendants, such as paying for advocate’s fees. If estimated further, the criminal justice process also incurs indirect cost for defendants, such as losing their job opportunity when they were detained/imprisoned (opportunity cost). When suspects/defendants act as the breadwinner, very often this condition leads to chain effects to their family. They could be drowned in pile of debts and their children could be dropped out because they had to start working immediately to replace the primary breadwinner who had been detained or imprisoned. Moreover, legal process undergone by a person also incurs cost relating to psychological conditions suffered by relevant parties (intangible cost), such as experiencing trauma, mental instability, and others.

This research aims to estimating those impacts and costs arising from a crime and the cost expended for criminal justice process, using the concept of Cost of Crime and Criminal Justice. The cost and impact estimation framework covers all costs expended by all parties, both paid by offenders who undergo legal process, the government that operates the criminal justice process, and the community as part of a social ecosystem. Collective accumulation of all costs illustrate a “price” for (a) crime. This snapshot of the “actual” impact and “price” of a crime undoubtedly will be beneficial for policymakers to forecast consequences of a policy model option, and automatically, will help policymakers to considering more effective, efficient, and just narcotics policy alternatives.