Costs of Violence and Abuse
We all bear the costs of violence and abuse in our society. And it is costly. It makes sense that we invest in research to ensure our money is creating effective responses to this pervasive problem.
Take one example that was created by the National Crime Prevention Centre. It follows the fictitious, but typical, life of a young man named Jack. He is a troubled child who does not get the help he needs early in life. By the time he is 17, he has cost the system (that’s you and me) over $500,000. For his detailed story, go to Jack’s Troubled Career
Violence against women and children is one of Canada's most pressing and costly social and health problems:
- A 1995 study estimated the annual cost of violence against women in Canada has been estimated at well over $4.2 billion:
Criminal justice $871,908,583
Social service /education $2,368,924,297
Labour/employment $576,764,400
Health/medical $408,357,042
Total $4,225,954,322
The study estimates the corrections costs alone to federal and provincial governments for men found guilty of sexual assault, spousal homicide, and wife assault to be $648 million annually.
|
|
$ millions |
|
incarceration for sexual assault |
$296 |
|
probation for sexual assault |
$ 59 |
|
incarceration for spousal homicide |
$ 36 |
|
supervision for spousal homicide |
$ 6 |
|
incarceration for wife assault |
$122 |
|
supervision for wife assault |
$129 |
Another 1995 study put the estimated the annual health-related costs of violence against women in Canada at a staggering $1,539,650,387.
This included:
- immediate medical, dental and workplace costs,
- longer-term health and psychiatric effects,
- drug and alcohol abuse,
- second generation effects and
- long-term workplace issues
The author stressed this number was just “the tip of the iceberg.” This figure did not include:
- costs for hospital admissions,
- physicians’ services, and
- cost of legal and judicial systems (including police services)
The study also estimates the costs in Canada of psychiatric hospital stays by women victims of violence to be $506,772,343 annually.
Violence against women was not even identified as an issue in the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Since then, we have become aware of the devastating costs of this issue in our society.
Childhood sexual abuse also carries a heavy economic burden to our society. In a recent study conducted in Saskatchewan, the following figures were arrived at:
- cost of medical services used by survivors was 3.7 times the population average
- average costs of hospitalization for survivors were 3.8 times the population average and 76% of the cost of hospitalization was spent on psychiatric care
- average cost of medications prescribed to the survivors was 9.4 times the population average
- cost of their emergency visits was 1.5 times the population average
There is a growing awareness of the private and social costs of this violence. As stated by the 1992 British Columbia Task Force on Family Violence:
"... family and sexual violence is enormously expensive. The social costs are staggering in human suffering, in lost potential and in hard cash. Prevention and early intervention offer the best hope of reducing or eliminating these costs. It is not a question of whether we can afford to pay or not. It is a question of do we pay now or do we pay later?"
- Many of the needs for counselling, jobs, and housing have yet to be adequately addressed at a social level. Although there has been increased attention, particularly by the criminal justice system, to physical and sexual assault, emotional abuse is still largely ignored.
- Employers also pay for violence against women in higher absenteeism and lower productivity.
Select costs have been estimated by the BC government for 1995/96:
Aboriginal Family Violence Programs $2.7 million
Alcohol and Drug treatment costs $7.3 million (16.5% if total program)
In no way can the "cost" of this horrifying physical and psychological damage of this violence to victims be entirely quantified.
Prevalence of violence and abuse
Family violence is reinforced when we deny, minimize and tolerate its existence, both in principle and in practice. Some of the most enduring Canadian institutions-including religious, judicial and political-have contributed to the problem, often without intending to do so, by not recognizing the issue or responding appropriately.
Canadians do care about this issue. A recent study by EKOS Research Associates found the following:
- 61% if Canadians reported they know (or have known) someone who has experienced family violence, with people in Alberta and BC most likely to know someone
- 75% of Canadians believe family violence should be an urgent priority for the federal government
- 80% of Canadians report they have heard or read something about family violence in the last 12 months, most often through TV or newspapers
- almost 75% of Canadians feel they have some personal responsibility for helping to reduce family violence
And there is a lot to worry about:
- Almost a quarter million women are either battered or sexually assaulted each year.
- Thousands of child physical or sexual abuse cases are reported each year.
- Police data for 1999 indicates that 60% of all sexual assault victims are children and youth (under age 18). Parents are responsible for 42% of these sexual assaults
- Alberta has the highest reported incidence of violence against women of any province in Canada. The Women’s Health Surveillance Report recently reported that one in four Alberta women has suffered some form of violence at the hands of her partner over the past five years, the highest percentage in Canada.
- In the past two decades, police data indicates that, of all individuals who were murdered, approximately one third were killed by a relative.
· At least 40 per cent of women in violent relationships report some form of physical injury, compared with 13 per cent of men, while 15 per cent require medical attention as a result of the assault compared to three per cent of men (Statistics Canada, 2002).
· One quarter of all violent crimes reported to a sample of police services in 2001 involved cases of family violence. Two-thirds of these cases were violence committed by a spouse or ex-spouse and 85 per cent of the victims were women. (Statistics Canada, 2003a).
· Children who witness violence in the home face an increased risk of behavioral and developmental problems, as well as emotional disorders such as depression, fear or anxiety (Statistics Canada, 2000).These children often exhibit physical aggression and are at greater risk of becoming victims and perpetrators of family violence themselves.
Some groups face even greater risks:
· Aboriginal* women are at particular risk for family violence. Multi-generational cycles of family violence, lower socio-economic status and limited educational attainment are realities for many aboriginal women. These factors create a number of significant barriers that further compound the power and resource imbalances that put them at greater risk of abuse and violence. A 1989 study by the Ontario Native Women's Association found that 8 out of 10 Aboriginal women in Ontario had personally experienced family violence. Of those women, 87 % had been injured physically and 57 % had been sexually abused.
· Immigrant and refugee women are also at greater risk for family violence. These women do not form a homogeneous group, as they come to Canada from many different countries, each with their own cultural norms, beliefs and practices.
· Women with disabilities are also at much greater risk than the general population. The DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN) estimates that over one million Canadian women have disabilities and over two-thirds of them have been physically or sexually assaulted before puberty.
· Women living in rural areas face additional barriers when living with violence. Physical isolation, longer police response times, no public transport, financial consequences for leaving the farm and lack of shelters from abuse are all issues that lead to many rural women remaining in abusive relationships.
· Violence in same-sex relationships often remains hidden in the same way spousal abuse was kept “in the family” for many years. This happens for a variety of reasons including homophobia (individual and systemic prejudice against homosexuality), heterosexism (the assumption of heterosexuality can isolate same-sex couples, making them invisible to the system) and an unwillingness to believe that women could hurt their female partners or that men could hurt their male partners.
· Young women experience violence at an alarming rate, particularly in intimate relationships. In the Violence Against Women Survey, the rate of victimization of young women in the 12 months previous to the study was almost three times higher among 18 to 24 year olds (27%) than for women in general (10%).
· Older adults are also at risk. In a 1989 study, 4% of seniors self-reported abuse or maltreatment.
Ontario Native Women's Association, Breaking Free: A Proposal for Change to Aboriginal Family Violence (Thunder Bay: Ontario Native Women's Association, 1989). pp. 18-19.