Childhood lead exposure in France: benefit estimation and partial cost-benefit analysis of lead hazard control

Table 3 The effect of developmental lead exposure on crime in France and the associated annual costs (€₂₀₀₈)

Crime	Number of crimes per 100,000 French residents (N)^a	Lead linked crimes per 100,000 French residents (N)^b	Total lead linked crimes (N)	Costs per crime (e)^{c, d}	Total direct costs€million
Burglaries	497.9	11.7	4,770	2,004	9.6
Robberies	37.79	0.3	102	22,529	2.3
Aggravated assaults	172.8	5.4	2,206	20,058	44.3
Rape	15.5	0.4	171	27,990	4.8
Murder	1.33	0.1	29	30,645	0.9

a: calculated using data from the National Observatory of the delinquency, 2009[44] b: (Nevin, 2006) by using French rate crime[36] c: calculated data from (Arlaud, 2006)[46] d: calculated data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics inflated to 2008[47].
Table 3 shows the effect of developmental lead exposure on crime in France and the associated annual costs. We first informed on the number of the selected crimes per 100,000 French residents committed in 2008: 497.9 burglaries, 37.79 robberies, 172.8 aggravated assaults, 15.5 rapes and 1.33 murders. US Lead linked crimes (with US crime rate (5.6 per 100,000)), estimated by Nevin, were adapted to the French crime rate (1.7 per 100,000): we obtained 11.7(e.g. =(38.7/5.6)*1.7) burglaries, 0.3 robberies, 5.4 aggravated assaults, 0.4 rape and 0.1 murder for lead linked crimes per 100,000 French residents. We calculated the total lead linked crimes for the French population aged 13-60 years. We then used French and US available data for the direct costs per crime and multiply these latter with total lead linked crimes to obtain the total direct costs per year (€61.8 million in 2008).

ISSN: 1476-069X