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)
What Is Technical Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)?
A technical cost-benefit analysis measures both costs and outcomes in monetary terms. Costs and benefits can be compared between programs or contrasted within a single program. Cost-benefit analysis can also discover whether program expenditures are less than, similar to, or greater than program benefits. The time it takes for program benefits to exceed program costs is also measured in some cost-benefit analyses. (Yates, B.T. Measuring and Improving Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Cost-Benefit for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs: A Manual, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1999.)
Cost-benefit findings can often stand alone. For example, as noted previously in the section on cost estimates, consider the inherent value of finding that VAWA-I is estimated to cost $15.50 per U.S. woman and would be expected to save $159 per U.S. woman in averted costs of criminal victimization. (A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, by Clark, K. et al, Violence Against Women, Vol. 8, No. 4, Sage Publications, 2002.)
Some domestic violence prevention programs produce measurable monetary outcomes, such as decreased job absences, decreased health care costs, and decreased costs of apprehending, trying, and incarcerating perpetrators. These cost savings may not occur right away. In fact, some costs may increase in the short-term as more victims of domestic violence seek help. With time, however, social service costs may decrease, whereas victims’ income and taxes paid by victims may increase. (Yates, B.T. Measuring and Improving Costs, Cost-Effectiveness, and Cost-Benefit for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs: A Manual, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1999.) All of these income increments, tax payments, and cost savings can add up to a considerable total benefit that exceeds the cost of the prevention program several times over.
When both the dollar cost of the program and the dollar value of the outcome of the program are quantified, this is usually called a true cost-benefit analysis. Now the program cost and its effectiveness are both being measured in dollars!!! Yes, a common metric!!!