The Netherlands’ problematic youth gangs cost society hundreds of millions of euros a year, according to research carried out on behalf of the justice ministry.

The report, entitled ‘Expensive Friendships’, details the wider cost of dealing with crime associated with juvenile gangs. It estimates a criminal gang, usually based around drugs, costs some €1.9m a year while gangs made up of nuisance-makers cost the taxpayer some €1.5m.

The bill is made up of the cost of the damage and policing, social workers, lost labour productivity and tax income as well as the healthcare bill for drink and drugs-related incidents.

‘I’m shocked by how high this bill is,’ criminologist Henk Ferwerda told the AD. ‘This is the first time someone has put a price on the behaviour of these gangs.’

The research, carried out for the ministry by Amsterdam policy research group Cebeon, looks at the cost of dealing with gangs over a five year period.

Ferwerda told the paper there had been a drop in the number of problematic youth gangs between 2009 and 2014 and that since then, their number has not been monitored.

In the 2014 report, by far the majority of the 200 gangs identified were involved in petty crime and causing a public nuisance rather than out and out crime. The problem was also more acute in eastern and central parts of the country than in the cities.