About 91 percent of all sexual assault and rape victims are female, despite 51 percent of all violent acts having male victims, according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey.
Victims of sexual assault or rape often face emotional and physical costs. But those are not the only costs that they must shoulder, as there are often financial costs as well.
Every year, sexual assaults on women cost the United States about 4.9 billion dollars, according to a new study from McKinsey Global Institute. You can download the full report here.
This cost is divided up into three parts, according to the CDC. Seventy percent is attributed to medical costs, 15 percent from the productivity the women lose due to sexual assault, and another 15 percent for the income that a woman loses over her lifetime.
With more than 39 million women in the United States being victims of violence at the hands of their own intimate partners, it is no wonder that the country faces such a cost.
The study found that in homes with a higher income, domestic violence was less likely to occur than in households with lower incomes.
“In recent years, more than 95 percent of violent incidents happened in households with incomes of less than $75,000,” said the McKinsely Global Institute study.
It was also found that homes with lowest incomes had 15 times higher rates of violence than those with the highest incomes. Households that have guns increase a woman’s risk for murder by her partner by eight times, and the risk is 20 times higher where there has been past domestic violence.
This study shows that income has some tie-in with violence against women, and the assaults against women are continuing to cost emotionally and financially.
Reviewed April 20, 2016
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith