In response to public concern about violence against women in the United States, Congress passed the VAWA-I, which provided $1.6 billion for programs over 5 years. To take into account the broad impact of violent criminal victimization on the legal system, law enforcement agencies, health care system, social programs, and victims, this cost-benefit analysis was conducted from a societal perspective. This perspective included all costs and all effects of VAWA-I, regardless of who experienced the costs and the effects. The cost-benefit of VAWA-I was assessed as a single broad policy rather than as a series of individual programs funded through VAWA-I. Estimates of both annual costs and outcomes were compared for the yearly average of the 2-year period before VAWA-I (1992-93) and a 1-year period after the disbursement of VAWA-I funds (1996). For the purpose of this analysis, the cost components of crime as determined by Miller and colleagues (1996) were used. The costs components involved the averted costs of crime, including direct property losses, medical care, ambulance services, mental health care, initial police response and follow-up investigation, victim services and other social services, lost productivity, and quality of life. Benefits were calculated as averted costs. The analysis found that VAWA-I saved $14.8 billion in net averted social costs, suggesting that VAWA-I is an affordable and beneficial social program. 3 tables and 21 references