NCJ Number
184005
Date Published
1999
Length
37 pages
Annotation
A national survey conducted in 1998 focused on participants’ willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce gun violence and estimated that the public’s WTP to reduce gun violence by 30 percent equals $23.8 billion, or $750,000 per injury.
Abstract
The participants included 1,204 adults. Information came from interviews that asked a series of questions about attitudes toward government and toward current or proposed gun regulations. The interviewer then asked about whether participants would vote for or against a new program to reduce gun thefts and illegal gun dealers with funding from an added tax payment of various specific amounts. The analysis produced both non-parametric and parametric estimates of WTP and also included sensitivity analyses. The estimates implied a statistical value of life of $4.05 to $6.25 million; this value is consistent with those derived from other methods. Findings were remarkably consistent with previous estimates from wage-risk tradeoffs. Findings suggested that the benefits from reducing gun violence are substantial and accrue mainly to citizens at low personal risk of injury through reductions in risk to others in the home, lower tax bills, or improvements in the overall quality of community life. Footnotes, tables, technical appendix, list of other publications from the same organization, and 53 references