Posted by
arclightzero on Saturday, July 21, 2007 9:58:41 PM
Here are some numbers that will make your stomach knot...
According to a new study released for Minnesota, the total yearly cost of sex assaults in the state is nearly $8 Billion.
Each child assault costs the an average of $184,000
Each adult assault costs an average of $139,000
The highest cost was "suffering and lost quality of life" which came out to around $6.4 Billion. The state spent $130.5 million to investigate, incarcerate and treat sex offenders and $90.5 million on health care and other victim services. The state gets $823,000 in federal funding for sex assault victims.
In 2005, there were 61,000 sex assaults in Minnesota alone. 80% were women and 29% were minors. One in 70 children was assaulted with the highest rate being girls between 13 and 17.
For the full report, including a complete breakdown of costs and who pays for what, see the full report here.
I'm not sure what to make of these numbers. I'm appalled, especially when you consider where all of our efforts are being channeled to right now. How can we justify spending so much money on things like immigrant rights when the monetary cost alone of sexual crimes in just one state is $8 billion (not to mention the psychological and physical effects of sex crimes on the population). Perhaps we should focus more on taking care of problems like this and less effort on the silly crap the government seems so focused on right now.