DC homicides cost taxpayers $1.53M per murder, nearly $1B price tag for all shootings last year: study
Washington, D.C., homicides cost taxpayers $1.53 million per deadly shooting last year, amounting to an estimated $1 billion overall price tag for gun violence in the nation’s capital in 2021, a recent study shows.
A new report titled “The Cost of Gun Violence” conservatively estimated that each deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., last year cost taxpayers $1.53 million per homicide involving one suspect based solely on the direct costs like hospital services, policing, prosecution, and incarceration.
That estimate more than doubled to $3.1 million per homicide involving two suspects. Each shooting that did not involve a fatality cost taxpayers about $783,000 per incident involving one suspect. The estimate per injury shooting with two suspects was about $1.6 million.
Based on very conservative figures, the analysis estimates that in 2021 alone, gun violence in D.C. cost taxpayers almost $1 billion. The analysis accounts for the price tag of police response, crime scene clean-up, fire/EMS response, hospital expenses for trauma center treatment or emergency surgery.
For each homicide, an estimated $201,960 goes to criminal justice expenses, including the police investigation, district attorney and public defender and the court process. The costliest factor is incarceration, costing an estimated $1,071,847 per homicide with one suspect last year.- READ MORE
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