But we did find a study by Professor Mark Cohen at Vanderbilt University that breaks down the lifetime costs imposed by a career criminal. In a 1998 article, he looked at a target population of chronic juvenile offenders who are assumed to continue a life of crime as an adult. The assumptions used in this study include that a typical adult crime career is six years and the criminal spends nearly eight years in prison. Using 1997 dollars, he concluded that the total external costs of a life of crime range from $ 1. 5 to $ 1. 8 million (Cohen, “The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1998).
Using 1997 dollars, Cohen estimated:
1. $ 165,000 in victim costs per year of a criminal's career (about 35% attributable to tangible costs such as lost wages and medical bills and 65% attributable to the value of lost quality of life to victims);
2. the average career criminal annually adds $ 40,000 to the cost of the criminal justice system (including investigation, defense, incarceration, parole, and probation); and
3. the prisoner is not a productive member of society while incarcerated and, based on an average of eight years in prison, the total foregone earnings for a career criminal is $ 60,000 or $ 52,000 in present value terms.
Cohen concluded that juvenile delinquency between age 14 and 17 imposes $ 83,000 to $ 335,000 while an adult career criminal adds $ 1. 4 million. He concluded that the total external costs of a life of crime range from $ 1. 5 to $ 1. 8 million. Of this amount, about 25% is tangible victim costs, 50% lost quality of life, 20% criminal justice costs, and 5% offender productivity losses (Cohen, “The Monetary Value of Saving a High-Risk Youth,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1998).
makes me feel very good that I am on this side of that fence. 
