U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Violence Containment Spending in the United States: A New Methodology to Categorize and Account for the Economic Activity Related to Violence

NCJ Number
241027
Date Published
2012
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This report determines what violence containment costs are being spent in the United States.
Abstract
Violence containment costs are related to the prevention of or mending the consequences of violence against person or property. This report outlines a conservative and indicative analysis of the size of private and public sector spending on violence containment in the United States. Key findings indicate that containment spending in the United States amounted to $2.16 trillion in 2010 equivalent to just over $15,000 for each taxpayer or $7,000 per year for every man, woman and child; if violence containment spending was represented as a discrete industry, it would be the largest industry in the United States economy, larger than construction, real estate, professional services or manufacturing; if violence containment spending was represented as a discrete national economic entity, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world, only slightly smaller than the United Kingdom economy; violence containment spending is four times higher than the national defense budget; public sector spending on VCI accounts for 10.8 percent of GDP while private sector spending is 4.2 percent of GDP; if U.S. Federal violence containment spending was reduced by $326 billion or 25 percent, then in 1 year, the saved funds would be sufficient to entirely update the energy grid, rebuild all levies and renew the Nation's school infrastructure. Tables, figures, and appendixes