Philadelphia City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart has offered an unconventional approach to the city’s gun violence problem.
Rhynhart released a report last week that measures the economic impact of gun violence in Philadelphia.
Specifically, the report shows that gun violence costs the city millions of dollars in tax revenue, lost to property values that go down in the vicinity of homicides.
The controller’s office analyzed residential property sales and homicides that occurred across the city between 2006 and 2018, looking at sales made 60 days before and 60 days after a homicide.
The report found that killings in a neighborhood have a sizable effect on nearby residential sale prices, with a single murder lowering sale prices in the immediate neighborhood by an average 2.3 percent. A drop in sale price was seen in properties located within three-quarters of a mile of a killing, with stronger impact within one-tenth of a mile.
Using that figure, Rhynhart extrapolated the revenue from a 10 percent reduction in homicides would be $114 million over five years.
While the human cost of gun violence is incalculable, the report shows the broader impact of violence beyond the immediate victims and their families.
Rhynhart says she realizes the human impact on gun violence is much more important but she hopes that, by demonstrating that ending violent crime is not only the moral imperative but financially sound, she can rally support for spending on it among those who might not be directly affected.
The reality is that showing that reducing gun violence is not only a moral imperative but has economic benefits could help increase the sense of urgency among political and business leaders and city residents who are not directly impacted by gun violence.
The controller’s report comes after a 2-year-old girl was shot and killed in her home in Kensington and an 11-month-old boy was shot four times in Hunting Park when someone fired at the car he was in. At the current rate of over 280 homicides, the city could match or pass last year’s total of 353 homicides for the year.
Fortunately, the controller’s report does not only point out the problem but also offers solutions that have been successful in New Orleans and other cities.
The evidence-based strategies offered in the controller’s report are:
Group Violence Intervention, which targets the individuals most likely responsible for shootings with both potential punishment and access to support services.
Cure Violence, a public health approach to violence that uses community-oriented street outreach independent of law enforcement to intervene in street disputes.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a preventive strategy that seeks to improve decision-making among high-risk individuals.
The city, through investing in these programs, could reduce homicides by 35 percent over five years from the 2018 total, the report says. “Additionally, the report details that the potential tax revenue generated by reducing homicides would surpass the program costs by year two and at the end of five years, the City would see a cumulative gain of $71 million after the cost of funding these programs is taken into account.”
Mayor Jim Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner should include the controller’s recommendations as part of their own plans to reduce gun violence in the city.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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