There is a great need to consider the link between public health and violence, as the long-term consequences of violence on people’s health also encompass the traumatic emotional consequences that need to be considered in the health budget of a country emerging from societal violence and/or and armed conflict.

In the context of that the murder rate in the Central American countries are exceptionally high with 14.257 murders officially noted in 2006 compared to 336 murders noted in Spain also in 2006 (Spain’s and Central America’s population almost equals each other), The World Bank in its report “Crime and Violence in Central America, A Development Challenge” made reference to the 2008 Acevedo Report (commissioned by the National Security Council of El Salvador) which showed in Table I on “Total economic costs of crime and violence as percentage of GDP”, that the costs for health care, also taking into account the costs for emotional suffering, constituted “the largest single share of the added financial burden for all countries surveyed.” The countries surveyed were the Central American countries Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador (Panama excluded). Violence and armed conflict fundamentally incur heavy costs for a country with a widespread negative impact on a governmental state budget taking away much needed funds to build up a country.

LINKS & REFERENCES
World Bank Report: “Crime and Violence in Central America, A Development Challenge” (2011, p. ii, 6, 7): http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAC/Resources/FINAL_VOLUME_I_ENGLISH_CrimeAndViolence.pdf