The report indicates the $2.5 billion breaks down to about $2,500 per Chicago household.
The study also found more homicide victims had alcohol in their system not hard drugs. And the authors say the underground market for guns seems to work far less efficiently than it does for drugs.
"From the research that we've done, i wind up feeling like that there are things that we could do to make guns harder to get in chicago and to make people less likely to carry guns in public and misuse them against other people, even absent of major changes in federal law," said Jens Ludwig, director, University of Chicago crime lab.
The crime lab is looking for ideas from the community to help reduce gun violence among school age children while promoting positive youth development in the city's highest crime areas.
