Making the Case for Domestic Violence Prevention Through the Lens of Cost-Benefit
A Manual for Domestic Violence Prevention Practitioners
(and the State and Local Policy-Makers They Present to)
How Is Cost-Benefit Thinking Relevant To Domestic Violence Prevention?
Cost-benefit thinking is being broadly and usefully applied in numerous violence prevention arenas. Bringing the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness approaches to thinking about domestic violence prevention is a natural step in this larger process. After all, preventing any form of socially undesirable violence is not only good for people and society, but it is also economically worthwhile. First, we must build a picture of the extent of the problem that we seek to prevent.
There is striking evidence for the cost-effectiveness of prevention programs......
The 2004 report The Economic Dimensions of Interpersonal Violence released by the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes three key messages:
The consequences of interpersonal violence are extremely costly;
Programs to prevent violence are cost beneficial and cost-effective;
We have insufficient descriptive information on the direct costs of treating the consequences of interpersonal violence. (The Economic Dimensions of Interpersonal Violence. Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2004.)
The “allocating of resources,” such as public funds, “EFFECTIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY” is policy-makers’ decision making language….
Estimating the costs of domestic or intimate partner violence is a wise approach to explaining the importance of funding the prevention of this violence. Estimating the economic costs of this violence can assist policy-makers and funders in the efficient allocation of resources. But does violence really have an economic cost? Can you really place a dollar value on preventing domestic violence? Yes! And, this dollar value language is what is spoken quite often at the policy-making and funding level. It is important to understand the power of this economic cost language -- a tool that opens doors, minds and wallets.
Economic costs of domestic violence can include, among many other elements, estimated annual costs of intervention services – first responders, medical care, and mental health care – as well as lost productivity. Lost productivity means that anyone experiencing domestic violence is at risk of working under par while on the job, missing work, and even losing a job. At the same time, that person’s employer is feeling the effects of this lost productivity. Domestic violence thus has costs for individuals, communities that strive to respond to the needs of victims of domestic violence, and employers of these victims.
“It’s important to address the costs of domestic violence to the business community – what are the costs in decreased worker productivity, time away from work, and others? Being battered doesn’t affect a woman’s chance of getting a job but it appears to reduce her chance of keeping a job – this translates into increased costs for businesses in terms of recruitment, hiring, training, and retention. Business leaders have a vested interest in reducing domestic violence.”
Susan B. Sorenson, Ph.D., Professor
UCLA School of Public Health, March 25, 2004.
The costs of domestic violence do not necessarily end when the violence ends, if it can be stopped. Many victims of domestic violence (including children who witness such violence whether or not they experience it directly) require medical, mental health and/or other social services for years after the violence ends.
Advocates of domestic violence prevention programming recognize that this economic cost thinking is relevant. The costs of domestic violence prevention efforts WILL BE weighed, either formally or informally, against the reduction (if any) of the costs of the violence these efforts seek to prevent. Clearly, calculating the costs of domestic or intimate partner violence in terms of numbers such as dollars, lost work days, and so on, is a challenge. Yet, a significant amount of headway has been made in this area. Here is an example of this sort of economic cost of domestic violence thinking, in this case conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense (yes, intimate partner violence also affects productivity and well-being in the military!):
Costs of Domestic Violence for the U.S. Department of Defense
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has identified four “cost areas” regarding its response to domestic violence within military ranks and departments:
Diminished readiness [for their military service] of abusers ($49 million annually);
Intervention, including law enforcement, command, and medical services to victims and treatment services to abusers;
Retention/replacement for those separated from active duty ($14 million annually); and
Transitional compensation ($10 million annually and rising).
An unofficial conservative estimate of these total costs is $273 million annually. These estimates do not include additional secondary cost areas to DoD, other governmental agencies, and the private sector. The cost areas include the costs of victimization: depression, substance abuse, unemployment, and lost tax revenue.
The DoD makes another important point: as an employer, it draws nearly half of its recruits from adults who were raised in military families. Therefore, domestic violence prevention expenses can have both short- and long-term benefits for the DoD. The DoD makes it clear that one of its primary concerns is to base its policy and programs on an empirical basis – something that all of us in the domestic violence prevention and public policy arenas are also concerned about.
[brackets ours]
Symposium on Domestic Violence Prevention, Opening Remarks,
May 13, 2002.
Department of Defense (DoD).