This article first catalogs the curious lack of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) in policing, given the increasing use of BCA in other areas of criminal justice. Policing has historically been viewed through a benefit-only lens, focusing almost exclusively on the welfare gains associated with the incapacitation of dangerous offenders and the deterrence of future criminal activity. The benefit-only perspective fails to take into account the significant costs of enforcement. Most saliently, the benefit-only perspective limits the discussion of the costs to policing. We argue that BCA of policing should not be limited to the financial perspective of any municipality, but must include the full nonbudgetary social costs and benefits felt by all those who feel the impact of policing. Social costs should include all direct and indirect costs borne by members of society who are impacted by policing practices in addition to costs that appear in police department budgets.

Oliver O'Donovan is mistaken to think that subjective rights are irredeemably bound up with Hobbesian individualism, but correct to criticize their abstraction from deliberation about a wider range of moral considerations. As Grotius's thinking shows, the existence of a natural, moral right against physical harm depends on the contingent presence or absence of morally significant circumstances. There is, however, an important distinction between natural moral rights outside a particular, effective legal system and positive rights granted by such a system. Positive rights are less contingent and more stable, because society thinks it prudent to bear the social costs of that stability. Take, for example, the positive right against torture. This is not based simply on the intrinsic evil of what is done to the tortured. It is based partly on the intrinsic evil of the sadistic motive of the torturer. However, this motive obtains only in some cases, not others. Let us distinguish the latter as cases of “aggressive interrogation.” There might be instances of such interrogation that are conscientious and morally justified, all considerations of social cost and risk apart. There is, therefore, no natural moral right against it. Nonetheless, its general legal prohibition under a positive right against torture is justified by the prudential judgment that any possible momentary advantages to national security are outweighed by the high risk of social and institutional corruption and its political costs. That said, extraordinary circumstances might still justify—morally—the rare violation of the positive, legal right.

Federal legislation mandates substantial reduction of air pollution emissions from electric utilities. Utilities in Appalachia that use locally mined high-sulfur coal must choose among abatement options such as fuel mixing and smokestack scrubbing technologies. Wet scrubbers are the most frequently adopted abatement technology in Ohio. This paper investigates beneficial reuses of by-product from wet scrubbers. By-product is most often disposed of in landfills, resulting in large external costs. We combine social cost and benefit transfers with a linear optimization model to investigate potential benefits of by-product recycling. Results suggest that significant incentives exist to find beneficial uses for by-product.

Objective - To consider the main problems associated with care and treatment of patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia in the light of the more recent literature of the economic aspects of this pathology. Method - An analysis of the literature related to the social costs of schizophrenia, the economic analysis of different health-care models, and the evaluation of the costs of antipsychotic treatments has been carried out. Results - Schizophrenia is a pathology creating huge social costs. The health costs associated with the care of schizophrenia take up a significant amount of the resources of healthcare systems in the principal industrialised countries. Indirect costs, due mainly to the patients' exclusion from work, exceed the direct costs of treatment. In those countries where community care has been supported by a real organisational effort to create community and residential services, it has proved to be a cost-effective solution compared with psychiatric hospital-based care and provides patients and family members with better results. The introduction of new antipsychotic drugs and the development of psychosocial support could represent the means of encouraging new healthcare strategies. Conclusions - From an economic perspective, the organisation, technological means, and strategies which would allow the available resources to be invested in a rational way must be considered. Consideration of these issues appears to be unavoidable today, not only for the administrators and the policy makers but also for mental health service professionals.

The baby boom generation is now well into middle age, and over the next few decades will reach old age. As the boom generation grows old the costs of maintaining existing social support systems will rise, and the ability or willingness to sustain those systems has been called into question. In this paper we discuss a number of issues related broadly to population aging in Canada and the associated social “costs,” including the costs of public services. We conclude that while population-related cost increases should be expected, and reallocations of resources required, the overall increases should be of manageable proportions.