Study Estimates the Economic and Social Cost of Domestic Violence Worldwide

A new study by scholars at Stanford University and Oxford University has determined that nine times as many people throughout the world are killed by domestic violence than are killed in civil wars.

* Among the findings of the study are that in some developing countries, 15 percent of children are regularly subjected to physical abuse.

* Some 30 percent of women worldwide over the age of 15 suffer intimate partner violence at some point in their lives.

* The authors estimate that the economic and social cost to society of domestic violence is more than $9 trillion a year, equal to more than 11 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

Dr. Hoeffler

The authors conclude that “despite its prevalence and apparently very large costs, the international development community has not yet conceptualized interpersonal or societal violence as a development problem that aid and other policy interventions should try to address in a systematic way. It could be that the benefit-cost ratios for interventions in this area are very low by comparison to governance and civil war related aid.”

The study was produced for the Copenhagen Consensus Center and was written by James Fearon of Stanford University and Anke Hoeffler of Oxford University.  It may be downloaded by clicking here.