Violence and crime absorb almost 3.5% of economic output of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, depleting funds that could be used in education and assisting the vulnerable, a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has found.
Beyond the human toll, the cost of crime amounts to almost 80% of the region's public budgets for education, twice as much as what is spent on social assistance, and 12 times the budget for research and development, the study, using data from 2022 and published on Monday, showed.
Crime "limits growth, drives inequality, and diverts private and public investment. We must join and redouble efforts to change that reality," IDB President Ilan Goldfajn said in a statement.
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