The Legal Examiner Affiliate Network The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner search instagram avvo phone envelope checkmark mail-reply spinner error close The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner The Legal Examiner
Skip to main content

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.

6 Comments

  1. Gravatar for Brian Toale
    Brian Toale

    It is unconscienable that knowing what we know today about the long term and delayed effects of child sexual abuse that the New York State Senate has not allowed the Child Victims Act onto the floor for a vote once in the 11 years it has been proposed. There are 2 days left in this years session and it doesn't look like they will allow a vote this year either. NY State Senator John Flanagan has been the primary obstacle for many years and is apparently doing the bidding of the biggest opponent of this measure, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops. They are blocking access to justice for all victims but the Catholic Church accounts for less than 5% of the cases. Every one of their rationales has been debuncted, yet they persist in using them. This will catch up with them some day, soon, I hope.

  2. Mike Bryant

    Thank you for the comment and reading my blog . So true, it costs everyone money, and it hides the truth. Every law opening the statute has found new names and got so many people justice.

  3. Gravatar for Clare Gerber
    Clare Gerber

    Informative article - what is also unconscionable as well is the number of poor and needy people who will starve and die and will not benefit from the contributions due to the silence and inability of handling this travesty from the beginning.

  4. Gravatar for John Thompson
    John Thompson

    This study was published in 2008. But people should also know that Adam Lanza the shooter at Sandy Hook was abused all his 23 years by his mother. At Sandy Hook his first school witnesses say he was not only bullied at this school but also assaulted many times. At his next school he was sexually abused by the most notorious pedophile priest in the state. The shooter at Virginia Tech was raped by the head of the fundamentalist church his parents attended and abused by his parents. The shooter at Pulse nightclub in Orlando was physically, verbally and psychologically abused by his homophobic father for years. Changing gun control laws will do nothing but focusing on child abuse you focus on many of the big problems in society.

  5. Mike Bryant

    so true Clare thank you for reading and the comment

  6. Mike Bryant

    John it is so true, that the damage and secondary damage is unbelievable. Thank you for reading and the comment

Comments for this article are closed.