Society May Be Willing To Pay A High Price To Prevent Child Abuse And Neglect

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 16:45 CST
RedOrbit

The amount the public will pay to prevent the death of a child may be twice that of an adult, according to a new University of Georgia study that asked 199 individuals how much they would pay to prevent a death from child abuse or neglect.

The research, published in the March edition of the American Journal of Public Health, found that respondents were willing to pay an average of $150 to reduce the mortality risk associated with child maltreatment by one in 10,000.

“This study is trying, for the first time, to put a dollar value on what it means to prevent a case of child maltreatment, and in this case, to prevent a death associated with child maltreatment,” said Phaedra Corso, head of the department of health policy and management in the UGA College of Public Health.

If applied to a hypothetical group of 100,000 people, the study found that society may value preventing a death from child maltreatment at $15 million. These numbers suggest that if an intervention is effective enough to save even one life, the benefits will outweigh the costs, explained Corso. FULL STORY

The problem with that theory is, people cannot be stopped from committing crimes, no matter how much money you throw at it.