By Clark Merrefield, Journalist's Resource*

The US has a sexual violence problem. Look at the numbers:

• More than one-third of women and one-quarter of men in the US will experience sexual violence during their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• More than one-third of women in the US frequently or occasionally worry about becoming a victim of sexual assault, according to Gallup’s 2018 Crime Poll.
• The US and the Syrian Arab Republic tied for third-worst for perceived threat of sexual violence against women – out of United Nations member states – in a recent Thomson Reuters poll of 548 experts on women’s issues.
• The US falls roughly in the top quarter globally for the percentage of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Sexual violence perpetrators often leave victims and survivors with a raft of physical and mental health consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Sexual violence survivors, victims and society also face economic costs. Rape and attempted rape can cost survivors more than $120,000 over their lifetimes, according to CDC research explained below. Society loses out in the form of lost productivity and through criminal justice and medical costs. More than 25 million adults have been raped in the US and the crime carries a total economic burden of almost $3.1 trillion, according to the CDC research.

“Reasons one, two and three why one should look at the economics: money matters,” says Liz Karns, a senior lecturer at Cornell University who integrates research on the economic consequences of sexual violence into legal arguments. “Once we attach a financial cost to any kind of wrong or injury we can start discussing who should pay for that.”

Below is some of the most recent research on the economic costs of sexual violence – but first, a quick note:  In this article, JR follows recommendations from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network on whether to use sexual violence “victim” or “survivor.” RAINN uses “victim” to refer to people recently affected by sexual violence, and “survivor” after a victim has gone through recovery.

Recently, people affected by sexual violence have written about their experiences, while #MeToo has heightened public awareness of sexual violence and harassment. Some prefer “victim.” The choice is the individual’s. When covering someone affected by sexual violence, “the best way to be respectful is to ask for their preference,” according to RAINN’s website.

Now, the research:

Lifetime Economic Burden of Rape Among US Adults

Peterson, Cora; et al.  American Journal of Preventive Medicine. June 2017.

This landmark CDC study is among the first to include a range of long-term economic consequences of rape beyond criminal justice costs, according to the authors. They find that individuals and taxpayers bear massive lifetime economic costs that total more than the annual Gross Domestic Product of all but four of the world’s largest economies.

• Individual rape victims encounter an estimated lifetime economic cost of $122,461.
• The lifetime economic cost of rape across all U.S. victims is nearly $3.1 trillion.
• “This value represents costs already incurred (for example, among older adults who were victimized in their youth) and costs yet to come (for example, among younger adults with recent victimization) across the U.S. adult population,” author Cora Peterson explains in an email.
• It includes $1.2 trillion in medical costs, $1.6 trillion in lost productivity at work for victims and perpetrators, and $234 billion in criminal justice costs.
• Governments pay about $1 trillion of the lifetime economic burden of rape. Government spending includes criminal justice, adoption and medical costs. The authors cite a small sample of 34 rape-related pregnancies that found about 6% of women placed the baby for adoption.

Short-term Lost Productivity per Victim: Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Violence, or Stalking

Peterson, Cora; et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. July 2018.

A follow-up to the previous CDC study, this research quantifies the number of productive days people lose when they experience intimate partner violence, sexual violence or stalking. In this research, productive days lost means lost school or work days.

• Each victim was victimized by an average of 2.5 perpetrators, and victims lost 741 million productive days with nearly five days lost per victim, on average.
• Each victim, on average, lost the equivalent of $730 in short-term productivity, and there was $110 billion in lost short-term productivity across all victims’ lifetimes.
• Most victims — 79 percent of women, 90 percent of men — reported no lost days.
• The authors calculated short-term lost productivity as the number of days lost multiplied by daily production value estimates from other academic research and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The Economic Burden of Child Sexual Abuse in the United States

Letourneau, Elizabeth J.; et al. Child Abuse & Neglect. May 2018.

The researchers tabulate the economic costs of child sexual abuse nationally, including costs related to health care, productivity loss, child welfare, violence and crime, special education and suicide. For this research, productivity loss means a victim or survivor’s potential loss of earnings stemming from sexual abuse that occurred during childhood.

• The authors estimate there were more than 40,000 new, nonfatal cases of child sexual abuse and 20 new fatal cases in 2015.
• The average lifetime cost for female and male victims of nonfatal child sexual abuse tops $282,000 — though most of this total is due to productivity loss and information on productivity loss for males was insufficient, according to the authors.
• The lifetime economic burden of fatal and nonfatal child sexual abuse is $9.3 billion.

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