A recent Centers for Disease Control and Protection(CDC) study, The Economic Burden of Child Maltreatment in the United States and Implications for Prevention, was both interesting and frightening. The CDC states that
… the total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect) is approximately $124 billion.
The CDC notes the report looked at:
… confirmed child maltreatment cases – 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non-fatal—for a 12-month period. Findings show each death due to child maltreatment had a lifetime cost of about $1.3 million, almost all of it in money that the child would have earned over a lifetime if he or she had lived. The lifetime cost for each victim of child maltreatment who lived was $210,012, which is comparable to other costly health conditions such as stroke with a lifetime cost per person estimated at $159,846 or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000.
A byproduct of Minnesota’s Child Victims Act has been our involvement in abuse cases that happened a very long time ago. So we witness the results of the devastation that hit peoples lives after they were abused. People in their 40 to 60’s that have suffered all sorts of challenges without any help at all. The Act has given them a chance at real justice that has been delayed too long.
The CDC study does make me wonder about the effect on the state, as the injured survivors have had to live with the horror of their abuse. How much have these perpetrators cost society Certainly beyond the physiological and physical damage, they have directly cost our community money.
Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.
