The Costs of Rape
People understand that rape changes the victim’s health for the worst, but do they know how much it costs for them to recover?
by Brock
Calcassa.org
Rape.
A term that most people try to block from their head. While most of society tries to act like it doesn’t happen, it does. Furthermore, there’s no way to fully erase rape predators from the world, nor is it wise to avoid the prevalence of it. According to the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, the average age one is raped at is 18. This is a common age when people begin their higher education where the cost of being a victim is just as detrimental.
Victims are found to be spending from a range of $80,000 — $200,000.
As high school students prepare to plan their lives in college or those in college not introduced to rape yet are unaware of the prevalent sexual assaults that occur while they’re away from home. A study done by the US Department of Justice found that one in six women and one in 33 men in the U.S. have been raped or been the victim of attempted rape. Likewise, these victims are found paying $80,000 — $200,000 (2014) towards direct costs like therapy and hospitalization to indirect costs like loss of tuition, lost earning potential and decreased quality of living. A study shows that the victim of rape pays more than any other crime committed: “One of these methods involves estimating the number of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) that victims of crime lose. The estimates suggest that rape results in the biggest losses.” One mother, Laura Hilgers, counted each penny they spent on her daughter after being raped her freshman year. In a New York Times article, Laura talked about the expenses the family spent on Willa, their daughter.
“There were other expenses too, but the ones I’ve listed add up to $100,573.63 out of pocket, and approximately $145,000 in lost wages, for a total of $245,573.63. That’s roughly the same as the cost of four years at one of the nation’s top colleges.”
Direct costs are a necessity when you become a victim of rape. Without help, some can go down a bad path. For being hospitalized in the first place, it can cost up to $1,000 just for the first visit. Within 30 days of the incident many are found paying around $6,737 of their own money. On top of the costs of going to the hospital, victims are found paying $50 — $240 for a one hour session of therapy. If a victim goes to therapy once a week for about a year, estimating the victim goes around the same time as Willa above, they’ll be found paying between $2,600 — $12,480. There could be more costs including extra help from treatment centers, rehab programs and etc. depending on the severity of the victim.
It doesn’t stop there, on top of the required costs of treatment there are indirect costs for the time the victim lost towards school, getting a job to the parents taking time to help their daughter or son. Depending on the university or college the victim attends, prices will vary. The same goes towards the job or major the victim was planning to head into and the costs for flights and the jobs the parents have. For the Hilger family introduced above, they lost around $145,000 in indirect costs.
Laura Hilgers ends her article concluding that Willa, who started college at 18, “will start her sophomore year, at the age of 22, at a different school.” In addition, they will be paying about $25,000 more to keep her in a sober dorm. Laura is okay with this, saying “the structured environment will provide the extra care and support she needs as she returns to a place she’s hesitant to go: a college campus.”
Resources
ESTIMATING THE INTANGIBLE VICTIM COSTS OF VIOLENT CRIME
By: Paul Dolan, Graham Loomes, Tessa Peasgood and Aki Tsuchiya
The British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 45, №6 (NOVEMBER 2005), pp. 958–976
Oxford University Press
