Friday 26 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
CENTRAL AMERICA:
Violence Exacts
Increasingly Heavy Toll
By Raúl Gutiérrez *
SAN SALVADOR (IPS) -
Violent crime costs
Central America an
estimated 6.5 billion
dollars a year,
equivalent to 7.7
percent of gross
domestic product in the
region, where the two
least violent countries
are the wealthiest --
Costa Rica -- and the
poorest -- Nicaragua,
according to a study
carried out in El
Salvador.
Some of the highest
murder rates in the
world are reported in
Central America: 68 per
100,000 population in El
Salvador, 45 in
Guatemala and 43 in
Honduras.
Central America is the
most violent subregion
in Latin America and one
of the most violent in
the world, says the
recent study "Los costos
económicos de la
violencia en
Centroamérica" (The
Economic Costs of
Violence in Central
America), commissioned
by the National Public
Security Council of the
Salvadoran presidency’s
office.
According to the World
Health Organisation’s
"World Report on
Violence and Health",
the average global
homicide rate in 2000
was 8.8 per 100,000
population a year, while
the 2007 study
"Understanding High
Crime Rates in Latin
America: the Role of
Social and Policy
Factors", by Rodrigo R.
Soares at the University
of Maryland and Joana
Naritomi at the World
Bank, put the Latin
America average at 21.8
per 100,000 inhabitants.
The Salvadoran study
evaluated four areas --
spending on health
(medical care, lost
production and emotional
damages), specific
institutional costs (law
enforcement, public
safety and justice),
private spending on
security, and material
losses -- using data
from 2006 and drawing on
previous studies on the
region and the world to
make comparisons.
Direct health costs --
health services for
prevention, diagnosis,
treatment and
rehabilitation for those
affected by violence --
totalled 229 million
dollars in 2006, while
indirect costs,
reflecting lost
production and
productivity caused by
absenteeism, temporary
or permanent incapacity
and premature death, ran
to 1.21 billion dollars.
Taking into account the
ages of victims, the
study conducted by
Salvadoran economist
Carlos Acevedo estimates
that "500,000 years of
life" were lost as a
result of violence in
Central America in 2006.
In addition, intangible
health losses were
estimated at 1.9 billion
dollars, based on the
monetary value of
compensation for victims
of violence.
"Pain, suffering and any
other reduction in the
quality of life are
intangible and, thus,
very difficult to
measure," says the
study.
Acevedo said the report
reveals "the approximate
magnitude of the costs."
And although he added
that the results should
be taken "with some
caution," because there
are gaps in the
available statistics and
information, "the
general outlook would
not change" with respect
to which countries are
the most violent and pay
the highest costs as a
result (El Salvador and
Guatemala) and which is
at the other extreme
(Costa Rica).
The study says the
soaring wave of crime in
the subregion absorbed
nearly 11 percent of
gross domestic product
(GDP) in El Salvador,
9.6 percent in Honduras,
7.7 percent in Guatemala
and 3.5 percent in Costa
Rica. It provides a 10
percent figure for
Nicaragua, although
Acevedo warned that this
proportion may actually
be lower because the
country’s GDP in 2006
was underestimated.
In total, the costs of
violence amounted to
2.29 billion dollars in
Guatemala, 2.01 billion
dollars in El Salvador,
791 million in Costa
Rica and 529 million in
Nicaragua.
The area of
"institutional expenses"
(legal, judicial and
police) was calculated
at 1.137 billion
dollars, but on the
basis of the budget
assigned in 2006 to the
institutions in
question, which included
"only those allotments
most directly related to
policies for preventing
and combating violence,"
says the study.
The "preventive" costs
in terms of private
security in homes and
companies, ranging from
alarm systems to walls
and fences and private
security guards,
totalled 1.238 billion
dollars. And material
losses, of goods or
assets stolen or
destroyed as a result of
criminal activity, were
estimated at 780 million
dollars.
According to figures
from 2005 and 2006, El
Salvador’s homicide rate
of 68 per 100,000
inhabitants is not only
a far cry from the rates
in Costa Rica (7.7 per
100,000) and Nicaragua
(12.5 per 100,000), but
is also higher than that
of Colombia (43 per
100,000), a country that
has been in the grip of
civil war for nearly
half a century, and of
Brazil (24 per 100,000),
home to the notoriously
violent cities of Rio de
Janeiro and São Paulo.
Besides the loss of
human lives -- "mainly
young lives" -- crime
exacts a "heavy toll"
that affects development
as well as "human and
social capital," says
the 22-page report
published in late July.
The study acknowledges
the link between poverty
and violence, but points
out that it is not
always the poorest
nations and individuals
that are most prone to
crime, while drawing
attention to the deadly
combination of enormous
income gaps and unequal
opportunities with other
social, cultural and
psychological factors.
In Guatemala and El
Salvador, expenditure on
health and education
does not exceed five
percent of GDP, notes
Acevedo, who was
assistant coordinator of
the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP)
Human Development Report
on El Salvador.
In Costa Rica and
Nicaragua, meanwhile,
public expenditure on
health stood at 5.1 and
3.9 percent of GDP,
respectively, in 2004,
while expenditure on
education was 4.9
percent of GDP in Costa
Rica in 2004 and 3.1
percent in Nicaragua in
2003, according to the
World Resources
Institute.
Countries with lower
social expenditure as a
proportion of GDP tend
to have higher
violence-related costs,
says Acevedo, who adds
that Costa Rica pays a
lower price for violence
because for decades it
has spent more on social
programmes.
Costa Rican sociologist
Isabel Román told IPS
that Costa Rica’s higher
levels of social
investment in comparison
with neighbouring
countries is an
important aspect to be
taken into account,
"because it has to do
with providing
opportunities" and
because the state
"invests in people, not
weapons" -- a reference
to the fact that the
country has no armed
forces.
Javier Meléndez,
director of the
Institute of Strategic
Studies and Public
Policies of Nicaragua,
agreed with the results
of the study overall,
but told IPS that he
believes that the
figures cited for his
country are "50 percent
true and 50 percent
myth," because "the
under-reporting of
crimes is much more
serious than what is
generally believed."
In Acevedo’s view, if El
Salvador would "redirect
part of the resources
that currently go
towards dealing with the
consequences of
violence, and dedicate
them instead to
education and health,
the country would be
much more productive."
"Providing education to
a child from the first
grade up to high school
is five times cheaper
than keeping a person in
prison," in terms of
annual costs.
According to the latest
Human Development Index
for El Salvador, it
costs the state 1,200
dollars a year to keep
someone in prison, while
spending on education in
primary and secondary
school ranges between
200 and 250 dollars a
year per child.
"So the key questions
are: what kind of
countries do we want in
the long term, how much
does it cost us to
achieve that, and are we
willing to finance it,"
Acevedo concludes.
* Myriam Blanco in San
José and José Adán Silva
in Managua contributed
to this report. |
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