The Price of Child Abuse

By Samantha Levine
US News & World Report, April 9, 2001

From the costs of fixing broken arms to the tab for healing broken psyches, the nation’s price tag for helping and protecting abused children is staggering. And the bills keep rolling in long after the kids have grown up, as society pays for the cops, judges, rehab nurses, and others who must deal with the enduring scars of childhood maltreatment.

All told, child abuse costs this country upward of $94 billion every year, or $258 million a day. That’s a $1,462 annual toll for every American family, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis released this week by a Chicago-based group, Prevent Child Abuse America. And this analysis only shows “the bare minimum of what is happening out there,” according to PCAA spokesperson Kevin Kirkpatrick, because no agency is systematically tallying the nation’s actual costs. The report’s estimated costs are computed from various sources of data on everything from mental healthcare and juvenile justice to the costs of building and running adult prisons and even lost productivity in the work-place.

But even such conservative ballpark figures are useful because they graphically illustrate how much could be saved by focusing more on prevention efforts, says David Finkelhor, a sociology professor and director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Without early prevention, abused and neglected children are more likely to become teen parents, and abuse alcohol and drugs. They are also more likely to become criminals as adults and to suffer from chronic health problems.

With a social problem this daunting, why are the data so scanty? It’s actually not surprising, says Finkelhor. Given the intense competition for severely limited resources, he asks: “Do we put money into rescuing endangered children or keeping track of our efforts?”

Cops, Shrinks, Rehab The daily cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States is almost $258 million. Some major sources of spending:
Hospitalization	$17 million
Mental Health and Healthcare	$12.7 million
Child Welfare	$39.5 million
Juvenile delinquency	$24 million
Adult criminality	$152 million