Trump’s CVI cuts cost 18x more than they save
760 more people will be shot; 253 more will be killed.
Last month, the Trump administration illegally cut millions of dollars in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) grants, saying CVI programs “no longer align with the administration’s priorities.”
That begs the question: What are the administration's priorities? We won’t pretend to understand the motivations of a DOGE team of over-caffeinated and under-qualified hedge fund bros, but we do know what the Trump administration doesn’t care about: saving lives or saving money.
That’s not opinion, it’s math. We crunched the numbers on Trump’s CVI cuts and found they will cost the American people up to $3.2 billion, result in up to 507 preventable non-fatal shootings, and cause up to 253 preventable deaths.
Here’s a look behind the findings:
Trump’s CVI cuts cost 18x more than they save. In our analysis, we looked at the $180 million in grants that supported direct programming (not research, training or technical assistance, or any of the other $640 million of OJP public safety grant cuts) for street outreach and CBT-informed violence prevention programs. We drew from high-quality studies that provided benefit-cost estimates – accounting for not just the costs of every violent incident’s sky-high legal, policing, and incarceration expenses but also social costs like increased fear and distrust. The result: Far from saving money, Trump’s cuts will cost Americans $3.2 billion.
Trump’s cuts will increase violence — resulting in 700+ more Americans shot or killed. Studies don’t just show CVI programs reduce violence and save lives – they put a number on it. Extrapolating from a high-quality study of Safe Streets Baltimore, we found that Trump’s cuts would result in up to 507 preventable non-fatal shootings and up to 253 preventable deaths.
Trump’s cuts aren’t just harmful, they’re illegal. In a class action lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s CVI cuts, lawyers representing CVI programs from across America laid out how Trump’s DOJ violated its own regulations, federal law, and the US Constitution in cutting the grants.
If CVI funding isn’t restored, the ripple effects of these cuts will be enormous. And to the extent you care about saving lives or saving money, they will also be completely, devastatingly counterproductive.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
The Trace | Trump’s cuts imperil life-saving prevention efforts, lawsuit says
Featuring CVI Legal Network and Democracy Forward
Featuring March for Our Lives
Planet Money | What we misunderstand about gun violence
Featuring Jens Ludwig, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab
By Corey Ciorciari, Molly Voigt, Jacquelyn Katson, Biz Rasich, Jack Craven, and Lucas Burgard