The Cost of Rape

The economic burden of sexual violence is one that’s hardly discussed or recognized. As if the emotional and physical tolls of experiencing assault are not enough, survivors often face financial tolls in the processes of healing and finding justice.

Although it is nearly impossible to assess, research has found that rape is the most costly of all crimes to its victims. On average, a study estimated that each rape costs approximately $151,423 (DeLisi, 2010).

The economic burden of experiencing sexual violence can be split into two categories: direct and indirect costs. Direct costs refer to actual dollar expenditures related to medical and mental health care services. On the other hand, indirect costs represent the value of lost productivity from both paid work and household chores.

Medical Care

According to data from 2019, 16% of emergency visits related to sexual violence resulted in out-of-pocket costs for survivors (Dickman et al., 2022). In those cases, the average cost of care was $3,551 per survivor, while the cost for pregnant survivors was higher—$4,553 on average.

The Violence Against Women Act, a federal law enacted in 1994, states that survivors cannot be charged for a forensic exam post-assault. Nonetheless, other medical services are not covered under the act, including emergency contraception, pregnancy tests, diagnostic testing, and treatment for sexually-transmitted infections. Thus, survivors may be billed for those services (Dickman et al., 2022).

Legal Fees

The price of legal representation varies depending on numerous situational factors, such as the facts of the matter, the location of the case, and the lawyer chosen. That, combined with a lack of research, makes it difficult to precisely estimate the financial toll of legal representation on survivors.

Survivors require legal representation in both civil and criminal cases. Beyond that, survivors may choose to pursue legal assistance when requesting a protective order or reporting to Title IX.

Nonetheless, there exist budget-friendly legal options, including sexual violence agencies that offer free legal advice and advocacy as well as law firms that do pro bono work for survivors. For example, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) has created the Pro Bono Project, to provide survivors with quality legal counsel and support when navigating the criminal justice system (Pro Bono Project – CAASE, n.d.). According to CAASE, “CAASE attorneys assess a client’s legal needs and eligibility for services, link them with pro bono attorneys, and provide ongoing support and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys representing CAASE-referred clients.”

Mental Health

Research shows a prevalence of mental illnesses in women who have experienced sexual violence, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as a heightened risk of attempted and completed suicide (Rivara et al., 2019). Nonetheless, The National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) estimates that only one-third of rape survivors seek professional mental health care (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2003).

The average cost of treatment is $978. On average, each incident requires about 12.4 mental health care visits, averaging $78.86 per visit. Survivors pay for more than one-third of the costs, as private insurers pay only slightly more… that is, if the survivor has the privilege of private health insurance (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2003).

Lost Work Time and Productivity

Survivors often lose time from daily activities due to physical and mental health issues. According to data from NVAWS, about 21.5% of women raped by an intimate partner report losing time from paid work, while 13.5% lose time from household chores. Among survivors, the average daily earnings lost is $69 (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2003).

These numbers don’t include college students who take time off from school or those younger who don’t even make it to college. Often, due to subsequent mental health issues (i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety), survivors are unable to return to work or complete college; and if they do, they struggle financially or are unable to advance in their careers.

Looking through a wider lens, the lifetime economic cost of rape across all U.S. victims is nearly $3.1 trillion (Merrefield, 2019). This value includes $1.2 trillion in medical costs, $1.6 trillion in lost productivity, and $234 billion in legal costs. To state it simply, think of all the survivors who suffer life-long economic disadvantage from experiencing sexual violence.

Strategist Sheetal Dhir explains it perfectly, “In the simplest of terms, survivors and the subsequent decrease in accumulation of wealth they experience is lost human capital. As has been proven time and time again, the more capital that’s funneled into an economy, the more robust that economy. By allowing ‘boys to be boys’ with impunity, we’re not only compromising on a social contract of civility, we’re actually preventing a third of the female population from fulfilling their economic potential, which is handicapping the American economy, plain and simple” (2018).

We know that sexual violence is prevelant; over half of women and nearly one in three men have experienced some sort of sexual violence in their lifetime (Fast Facts: Preventing Sexual Violence, n.d.). But sexual violence can also be prevented. Investing in efforts for prevention and education may save many from the emotional, physical, and economic burdens of sexual victimization.

Sources:

Delisi, M. (2010). Murder by numbers: Monetary costs imposed by a sample of homicide offenders. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 21, 501-513. doi:10.1080/14789940903564388

Dhir, S. (2018, September 30). It's time to speak about the economic cost of sexual assault. Al Jazeera.

Dickman, S. L., Himmelstein, G., Himmelstein, D. U., Strandberg, K., McGregor, A., McCormick, D., & Woolhandler, S. (2022). Uncovered Medical Bills after Sexual Assault. The New England Journal of Medicine, 387, 1043-1044. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2207644

Fast Facts: Preventing Sexual Violence. (n.d.). Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Merrefield, C. (2019, April 19). The multi-trillion dollar cost of sexual violence in the U.S. The Journalist's Resource.

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (2003). Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pro Bono Project – CAASE. (n.d.). CAASE.

Rivara, F., Adhia, A., Lyons, V., Massey, A., Mills, B., Morgan, E., Simckes, M., & Rowhani-Rahbar, A. (2019). The Effects Of Violence On Health. Health Affairs, 38(10), 1622-1629. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00480