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Violence Costs Nation $70 Billion Annually |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: The most comprehensive study of its kind has found that violence costs the United States $70 billion annually, a figure that rivals federal education spending and the damage caused by hurricane Katrina. Phaedra Corso, lead author of study and associate professor of health policy at the University of Georgia College of Public Health and health economist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the study illustrates how much money can be saved by investing in programs that decrease interpersonal violence and self-inflicted violence such as suicide. For comparison, the federal Department of Education has an annual budget of $67.2 billion and hurricane Katrina caused an estimated $80 billion in damage. Corso and her colleagues at the CDC analyzed eight national data sets compiled by the federal government and calculated medical costs as well as productivity losses. Most of the $70 billion in costs associated with violence were from lost productivity ($64.4 billion), with the remaining $5.6 billion spent on medical care. Americans suffer 2.2 million medically treated injuries due to interpersonal violence annually, at a cost of $37 billion ($33 billion in productivity losses, $4 billion in medical treatment). The average cost per case for a non-fatal assault was $57,209 in lost productivity and $23,353 in medical costs. Corso points out that society often foots the bill for the medical costs of violence through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Victims of violence are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and a host of other problems such as substance abuse.
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