The cost of child sexual abuse

In 2016-17, there was an estimated 489,194 cases of violence against children and young people aged 0-24 in Australia. In 2016-17, the estimated annual burden of violence against children and young people in Australia was $34.2 billion; the lifetime cost was $78.4 billion (Deloitte Access Economics, 2019).

A recent study of the cost of child sexual abuse in the United States considered health care costs, productivity losses, child welfare costs, violence/crime costs, special education costs and suicide death costs. This study estimated the lifetime economic burden of child sexual abuse at approximately $9.3 billion (2015 dollars). The lifetime costs for victims of fatal child sexual abuse averaged $1,128,334 per female and $1,482,933 per male victim, and the average lifetime cost of nonfatal child sexual abuse was $282,734 per female victim (insufficient information on productivity losses for males led to a lower average lifetime cost of $74,691 per male victim) (Letourneau, Brown, Fang, Hassan & Mercy, 2018).

Most recent estimates of the cost of child maltreatment in the UK have shown that the average lifetime cost of non-fatal child maltreatment per victim is £89,930, with the greatest contributors to these costs being social care costs, short-term health-related costs, and reduced employment costs. The estimate of lifetime cost per death from child maltreatment was £940,758, consisting of health care costs and lost productivity costs (Conti, Morris, Melnychuk & Pizzo, 2017).

References

Conti, G., Morris, S., Melnychuk, M., & Pizzo, E. (2017). The economic costs of child maltreatment in the UK: A preliminary study. NSPCC.

Deloitte Access Economics (2019). The economic cost of violence against children and young people. Canberra: Deloitte Access Economics.

Letourneau, E.J., Brown, D.S., Fang, X., Hassan, A., & Mercy, J.A. (2018). The economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States. Child Abuse & Neglect, 79, 413-422.