Gun Violence The Real Costs

by Cook, Philip J.; Ludwig, Jens

• ISBN13: 9780195153842
• ISBN10: 0195153847
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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 gunviolence 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-Columbineregulations 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 wherethere 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 reducinggun violence and may even pay for themselves.

Author Biography

Philip J. Cook is the ITT/Sanford Professor of Public Policy at Duke University and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has been conducting research on firearms and violence for over 25 years, and has served as consultant to the Departments of Justice and the Treasury. He has written extensively on alcohol control, gambling, the economics of crime, and other topics, and is co-author of The Winner-Take-All Society (1995) and Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America (1989).
Jens Ludwig is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Affiliated Expert of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. He conducts research on public policies related to crime and education, and has provided testimony on gun policy to state legislatures and other groups in California, Kansas, and Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Gun Violence and Life in America	p. 3
Victimization Risks	p. 15
How Guns Matter	p. 29
What Counts?	p. 45
Medical Costs: Gross versus Net	p. 63
The Mythical Importance of Productivity Losses	p. 75
Avoidance and Prevention	p. 85
Willingness-to-Pay to Reduce Gun Violence	p. 97
Remedies	p. 117
Data Sources for Injury and Mortality Rates	p. 135
Computation of Net Medical Cost Estimates	p. 149
Computation of Productivity Losses	p. 175
Computations of Contingent-Valuation and Quality-of-Life Estimates	p. 181
Notes	p. 197
References	p. 219
Index	p. 235
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.