National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Front Matter
Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×

1

Introduction

The costs of violence are borne by all segments of society, but their measurement and impact are difficult to quantify. Traditional approaches, consisting mostly of measuring the direct economic effects of healthcare utilization and productivity loss, vastly underestimate the additional social and developmental costs of both morbidity and mortality.

Beyond the measurable costs, violence causes pain and suffering, can lead to chronic trauma, affects child development, and can increase the risk of chronic health outcomes later in life (Repetti et al., 2002). As well, violence affects communities and societies, leading to losses in business sectors, financial divestment, and increased burden on the healthcare and justice systems. Although some methodologies exist for estimating such social or indirect costs, many are confounded by uncertainties in definitions and lack of rigorous evidence of causative factors.

Nevertheless, even initial and crude estimates of both the cost of violence and the cost of prevention show the financial benefits of early intervention. In most cases, the cost of implementing successful preventive interventions is less than the cost to individuals and society of inaction.

On April 28-29, 2011, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened its second workshop to explore the social and economic costs of violence. Part of the Forum’s mandate is to engage in multisectoral, multidirectional dialogue that explores cross-cutting public health approaches to violence prevention. To that end, the workshop was designed to examine these approaches from multiple perspectives and at multiple levels of society. In particular, the workshop was focused on exploring the successes and challenges presented by calculating

Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×

and categorizing both direct and indirect costs at multiple levels of society, as well as the potential cost-effectiveness of intervention. Speakers were invited to share the progress and outcomes of their work and to engage in dialogue exploring gaps and opportunities in the field.

The workshop was planned by a formally appointed committee of the IOM, whose members created an agenda and identified relevant speakers. Because the topic is large and the field is broad, presentations at this event represent only a sample of the research currently being undertaken. Speakers were chosen to present a global, balanced perspective, but by no means a comprehensive one. Given time and resource constraints, the planning committee members chose speakers who could provide diverse perspectives upon which further discussion could occur. The agenda for this workshop can be found in Appendix A.

ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT

This summary provides a factual account of the presentations given at the workshop. Opinions expressed within this summary are not those of the Institute of Medicine, the Forum, or its agents, but rather of the presenters themselves. Statements are the views of the speakers and do not reflect conclusions or recommendations of a formally appointed committee. This summary was authored by a designated rapporteur based on the workshop presentations and discussions and does not represent the views of the institution, nor does it constitute a full or exhaustive overview of the field.

The workshop summary is organized thematically, covering the major topics that arose during the 2-day workshop, so as to provide a larger context for these issues in a more compelling and comprehensive way. In addition, the thematic organization allows the summary to serve as an overview resource of important issues in the field. The themes were chosen as the most frequent, cross-cutting, and essential elements that arose from the workshop, but do not represent the views of the IOM or a formal consensus process.

The first part of this report consists of four chapters, which provide the summary of the workshop; the second part consists of submitted papers and commentary from speakers regarding the substance of the work they presented at the workshop. These papers were solicited from speakers to provide further information about their work, though not all speakers contributed papers. The appendix contains additional information regarding the agenda and participants.

DEFINITIONS AND CONTEXT

Violence is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against

Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×

oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation” (WHO, 2002). WHO further categorizes violence into seven types: child and elder abuse, sexual and intimate partner violence, youth and collective violence, and self-directed violence. This workshop examined all seven types of violence, as well as the underlying common risk factors and common outcomes.

The workshop explored both social and economic costs—the latter more easily quantifiable than the former—at four ecological levels: individual, family, community, and societal. While costs, benefits, outcomes, and measurement indicators can be defined differently, all workshop participants provided the context of their presentations and attempted to relate their content to a common framework. Speakers endeavored to enumerate costs and benefits where possible and to describe other potential costs where no suitable accounting methodology exists. Costs included not just the immediate and direct, but also the longer-term, widespread, and indirect.

The next four chapters examine the four major themes that arose from participants’ presentations and discussions: approaches to measurement and costing methodology (Chapter 2), challenges in calculating cost (Chapter 3), the creation of a bigger picture of the costs of violence (Chapter 4), and the promise of investing in violence prevention (Chapter 5). The three chapters in Part II include the submitted papers, organized as direct and indirect costs (Chapter 6), context and place (Chapter 7), and investing in prevention (Chapter 8).

Finally, the appendixes consist of the agenda (A), the speakers’ biographies (B), the planning committee members’ biographies (C), and the Forum on Global Violence Prevention members’ biographies (D).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Forum on Global Violence Prevention was established to address a need to develop multisectoral collaboration among stakeholders. Violence prevention is a cross-disciplinary field that could benefit from increased dialogue among researchers, policy makers, funders, and practitioners. As awareness of the insidious and pervasive nature of violence grows, so too does the imperative to mitigate and prevent it.

A number of individuals contributed to the successful development of this workshop and report. These include IOM staff: Rosemary Chalk, Angela Christian, Patrick Kelley, Elena Nightingale, Julie Wiltshire, and Jordan Wyndelts. The Forum staff, including Deepali Patel, Megan Perez, Rachel Pittluck, and Rachel Taylor, also put forth considerable effort to ensure this workshop’s success. The staff at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Barbara Jordan Conference Center provided excellent support for the event.

Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×

The planning committee contributed several hours of service to develop and execute the agenda, with the guidance of Forum membership. Reviewers also provided thoughtful remarks in reading the draft manuscript. These efforts would not be possible without the work of the Forum membership itself, an esteemed body of individuals dedicated to the concept that violence is preventable. Their names and biographies can be found in Appendix D.

The overall successful functioning of the Forum and its activities rests on the foundation of its sponsorship. Financial support for the Forum on Global Violence Prevention is provided by the Department of Health and Human Services: Administration on Aging, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Office on Women’s Health; Anheuser-Busch InBev; Avon Foundation for Women; BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company); Catholic Health Initiatives; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Eli Lilly and Company; Department of Education: Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools; Department of Justice: National Institute of Justice; Fetzer Institute; F. Felix Foundation; Foundation to Promote Open Society; The Joyce Foundation; Kaiser Permanente; National Institutes of Health: National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Research on Women’s Health, John E. Fogarty International Center; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

REFERENCES

Repetti, R. L., S. E. Taylor, and T. E. Seeman. 2002. Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin 128(2): 330-366.

WHO (World Health Organization). 2002. World report on violence and health. Geneva.

Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×
Page 1
Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×
Page 2
Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×
Page 3
Suggested Citation:"1 Introduction." Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. 2012. Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13254.
×
Page 4
Next: Part I: Workshop Overview »
Social and Economic Costs of Violence: Workshop Summary Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $46.00 Buy Ebook | $36.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Measuring the social and economic costs of violence can be difficult, and most estimates only consider direct economic effects, such as productivity loss or the use of health care services. Communities and societies feel the effects of violence through loss of social cohesion, financial divestment, and the increased burden on the healthcare and justice systems. Initial estimates show that early violence prevention intervention has economic benefits. The IOM Forum on Global Violence Prevention held a workshop to examine the successes and challenges of calculating direct and indirect costs of violence, as well as the potential cost-effectiveness of intervention.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!