Robert Gold recently wrote an article about the financial costs of child abuse. I include an excerpt:
Child abuse not only destroys people emotionally, it also saps the nation, employers and families financially.
The ninth annual conference on child abuse held by Danbury Hospital’s Department of Pediatrics opened Thursday night with an exploration of the economic problems behind abuse and neglect.
It is a topic Dr. Jack Fong, the event’s main organizer, has wanted to explore for years. Fong, chairman of the hospital’s pediatrics department, avoided it in years past because he didn’t want people to think he was diminishing the emotional impact of abuse. But he realized discussing it could draw more attention to abuse.
“When it comes to economic [impact], it effects everybody,” he said.
Keynote speaker Allen Morton, dean of the Ancell School of Business at Western Connecticut State University, gave the keynote speech Thursday night at the Ethan Allen Hotel in Danbury.
Child abuse costs the nation $94 billion annually, Morton told the crowd, citing a 2001 study by Prevent Child Abuse America. The figures include court costs, mental health treatments and social services for people who were abused as children. About one percent of the costs represent lost productivity.
“The impact of child abuse is much more extensive than the dollar figures just mentioned,” Morton said. “Its effects are pervasive and enduring. Abuse sows the seeds of further abuse, health problems, decreased educational and economic opportunities and huge burdens on taxpayers.”
Children lack the ability and maturity to defend themselves. Thus, fighting child abuse depends on societal initiatives. The economic costs mentioned in that article above gives even more reason for our society to do whatever it can to reduce child abuse.
I plan to remember the fact: Child abuse costs the nation $94 billion annually!
What do you think?
