The costs of violence

Abstract

In today's world, it is well accepted that violence exacts a high cost on global development. In about 60 countries over the last ten years, violence has significantly and directly reduced economic growth. It has hampered poverty reduction efforts and limited progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). About half of these countries experience violent conflict or are in post-conflict transition. The other half experience high levels of violent crime, street violence, domestic violence, and other kinds of common violence. Common violence often increases significantly in post-conflict countries after large-scale politically motivated violence ends. Such cases include Somalia, Liberia, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Conversely, countries with high levels of common violence have shown tendencies toward sporadic large-scale instability, for example Kenya (in the form of ethnic violence) and Brazil (in the form of urban riots). Recently the forms and distribution of violence have changed. The large-scale civil wars that prevailed until the late 1990s are no longer the main contexts of violence. Violence increasingly seems to manifest itself as common violence, particularly in urban areas. This is well documented in Latin America but also widespread in Africa and in large urban centers in Asia. Domestic violence seems to be increasing most in Africa. The scarcity of reliable monitoring mechanisms make it difficult to precisely assess the level and impact of these various forms of violence, but its predominance seems to be shifting from large-scale violent conflicts to less visible but widespread forms of common violence, and occasional collective violent outbursts. These forms of violence are very different from open wars, but can be just as damaging.