Front cover image for Gun violence : the real costs

Gun violence : the real costs

Each year in the United States around 35,000 people are killed as the result of gun violence, and another 100,000 or so suffer nonfatal gunshot injuries. While everyone agrees that these figures are too high, any attempts to reduce the number of gunshot injuries presents policy makers and citizens with difficult trade-offs. In this important new book Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig quantify the social costs of gun violence. Drawing on the most detailed and extensive economic study available, the authors show that the cost of gun violence is approximately $700,000 per injury. The also provide detailed information about how the burden of gun violence is distributed in the U.S. Based on this data, Cook and Ludwig assess the effectiveness of violence-reduction programs and make suggestions about how best to curb gun violence
Print Book, English, ©2000
Oxford University Press, Oxford, ©2000
xiv, 242 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9780195137934, 9780195303377, 9780195153842, 0195137930, 0195303377, 0195153847
43657023
Gun violence and life in America
Victimization risks
How guns matter
What counts
Medical costs: gross versus net
The mythical importance of productivity losses
Avoidance and prevention
Willingness-to-pay to reduce gun violence
Remedies
Appendix A: Data sources for injury and mortality rates
Appendix B: Computation of net medical cost estimates
Appendix C: Computation of productivity losses
Appendix D: Computation of contingent-valuation and quality-of-life estimates