Gun Violence: The Real Costs

by Philip J. Cook, Jens Ludwig

100 billion dollars. That is the annual cost of gun violence in America according to the authors of this landmark study, a book destined to change the way Americans view the problem of gun-related violence.

Until now researchers have assessed the burden imposed by gunshot injuries and deaths in terms of medical costs and lost productivity. Here, economists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig widen the lens, developing a framework to calculate the full costs borne by Americans in a society where both gun violence and its ever-present threat mandate responses that touch every aspect of our lives.

All of us, no matter where we reside or how we live, share the costs of gun violence. Whether waiting in line to pass through airport security or paying taxes for the protection of public officials; whether buying a transparent book bag for our children to meet their school's post-Columbine regulations or subsidizing an urban trauma center, the steps we take are many and the expenditures enormous.

Cook and Ludwig reveal that investments in prevention, avoidance, and harm reduction, both public and private, constitute a far greater share of the gun-violence burden than previously recognized. They also employ extensive survey data to measure the subjective costs of living in a society where there is risk of being shot or losing a loved one or neighbor to gunfire.

At the same time, they demonstrate that the problem of gun violence is not intractable. Their review of the available evidence suggests that there are both additional gun regulations and targeted law enforcement measures that will help.

This urgently needed book documents for the first time how gun violence diminishes the quality of life for everyone in America. In doing so, it will move the debate over gun violence past symbolic politics to a direct engagement with the costs and benefits of policies that hold promise for reducing gun violence and may even pay for themselves.

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Philip Jackson Cook is the ITT/Terry Sanford Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the United States. He also holds faculty appointments in Duke's departments of sociology, and economics.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theoretical discussion here remains highly relevant, but the statistics on gun violence are very out of date, considering that a book published in 2000 is using data from the 1990s. Also, gun laws (in the U.S., which is the locus of the book) have become drastically laxer since 2000; concealed carry is now legal in all states, and the power of the gun lobby is untrammeled.

(The term "gun violence" is used here to mean not only deaths, but injuries both intentional and unintended, and suicides.)

This book doesn't really concern itself with the politics of the gun debate (the National Rifle Association was only mentioned once in the text, and isn't even in the index). It discusses gun violence from an economics and public policy perspective.

The authors assign a cost of $100 billion annually (in 1999 or 2000 dollars) to gun violence in the U.S. Surprisingly, they assert, less than 2% of that is due to medical costs. The bulk of the cost comes from all of the steps we take as a society to try to protect ourselves, such as metal detectors in public buildings, bulletproof vests for police officers, and security for public officials. A large proportion of the total cost can be attributed to the criminal justice system - the salaries and infrastructure of the increased law enforcement and legal community (not just police but attorneys, judges, prison officials, etc.) required to deal with every single case of gun violence. Imagine a United States with no guns - and therefore no gun crime - and then imagine how much smaller the legal and justice apparatus at the local and state level could be if no gun crimes had to be dealt with. The authors also take into account as a cost lost productivity - foregone wages - although they contend this is less than what might be expected, since victims of gun violence tend to be lower on the wage scale than average. Also contributing to the $100 billion cost is pain, suffering, and lost quality of life.

The book is somewhat technical, but a casual reader can get through it. The text is 134 pages and the appendices, packed with statistics and tables, are another 60 pages. Endnotes, which contain a lot of detail, are about 20 pages. There's an extensive bibliography.

Given how passionate people are on the subject, I was surprised that there aren't many books available to the casual reader on the costs of gun violence. This was the only one I could find in my large library system. The book is already 15 years out of date.

[Lance Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting quantitative assessment of the cost of gun violence. The building blocks of the authors’ assessment is a deep dive into the actual impacts of gun violence based on a willingness to pay framework relating to harm avoidance. Without going into detail, the authors estimate that gun violence results in harm of approx $150 billion per year (taking their estimate and adjusting for inflation) based on 1993 and 1997 crime statistics. Most of the valuation comes from an contingent valuation assessment based on survey results which asks people how much they’d be willing to pay for a 30 percent reduction in gun violence.

The authors illuminate what I’d call several uncomfortable facts. Those that suffer gun violence often have a lower subjective value assigned to their own life which and so the true costs of violence are in the externality - the fear, avoidance, and trepidation people approach life due to prospect of gun violence. Actual gun violence is concentrated in the unemployed, those with less than a HS education, the young, and minority populations*. These are groups with less access to political pressure points that can advocate, or even have the willingness to advocate for, policies which may reduce gun violence.

Id say exploration of the cost side is worthwhile portion of book but policies to address falls short. More hand waving and back of the envelope calculations replace what was rigorous derivation of costs. Overall, recommended book.

*In 1996, the firearm homicide victimization rate for black males 18-29 was a staggering 133.5 per 100,000!