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NZ Herald
April 19, 2004
Violated child costs $84,000
by Martin Johnston, health reporter
Each
case of child sexual abuse costs the victim, the offender and the Government
$84,175 on average, an Auckland
researcher estimates.
Dr Shirley Julich, an Auckland University of
Technology senior lecturer, has totted up the costs associated with child
sexual abuse.
Included are GP visits, mental healthcare, loss of income for victim and
offender, police, prison and court costs, ACC spending on counselling and the
victims' pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment.
Based on research showing that 25 per cent of girls and 9 per cent of boys
have been sexually abused, she calculates that 8200 children are abused for
the first time each year. And on 1996 census data, there are likely to be
620,000 people alive who have been abused.
Dr Julich said US research showed that child
sexual abuse victims were less likely to gain formal job qualifications and
so earned 10 per cent less than those not sexually victimised as children.
For fulltimers that meant $3051 less a year.
"It's kind of crass really to be trying to put trauma into dollar
terms," she said, but to justify
spending a lot of money on a programme, policy makers and analysts "need
to have some assurance there will be a drop in the incidence of abuse".
Her estimate, updated to 2003 dollar values, is based on a 1994 costing of
domestic violence, figures specific to child sexual abuse, overseas research
and her own interviews with abuse victims.
Abuse costs, Costs per victim:
* Average lifetime cost to individuals and taxpayers is $84,175 in total.
Includes:
§
Medical charges, victims' and offenders' lost income and
other individual costs, $1545.
§
State costs of healthcare, welfare, justice, $360.
§
Victims' lost quality of life, $81,033.
Stuff
April 19, 2004
The high cost of child sex abuse
NZPA
Each
case of child sexual abuse costs the victim, the offender and the Government
more than $84,000 on average, an Auckland
researcher estimates.
Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer Shirley Julich
totted up all the costs associated with child sexual abuse at $84,175.
She said she erred on the lower side for all of them.
Included are GP visits, mental health care, loss of income for victim and
perpetrator, police, prison and court costs, ACC spending on counselling and
victims' pain and suffering.
Speaking at a weekend conference on sexual offending she quoted research
figures claiming that 25 per cent of girls and 9 per cent of boys have been
sexually abused.
Based on that she calculated that 8200 children were abused for the first
time each year.
On 1996 census figures, there would be 620,000 people alive who had been
abused.
Dr Julich said US research showed that child
sexual abuse victims were less likely to gain formal job qualifications and
so earned 10 per cent less than those not sexually victimised as children.
For fulltimers that equated to $3051 less a year.
"It's kind of crass really to be trying to put trauma into dollar terms
(and) it's incredibly difficult to put a dollar value on it.
"But that's not the language of policy makers and policy analysts. To
justify spending a lot of money on a programme they need to have some
assurance there will be a drop in the incidence of children being
abused."
Her estimate, updated to 2003 dollar values, is based on a 1994 costing of
domestic violence, figures specific to child sexual abuse, overseas research
and her own interviews with abuse victims.
It did not include the costs incurred by dependents of sexual abuse victims,
she said.
"The inability of society to effectively deal with the aftermath of
child sexual abuse creates huge downstream costs.
"(A) study of non-organic failure to thrive in
infants highlights the diversity of these costs. (It) identified that 42 per
cent of the mothers whose infants failed to thrive had been sexually abused
as children. If we were to include such downstream consequences the costs
would likely increase exponentially."
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Western Leader
August 22, 2002
Research by Shirley Julich
by Gordon Waugh
The
"research" by Dr Shirley Julich on sexual
abuse, reported in your article "Abuse carries steep price" (Aug
15), ranks her high amongst those skilled in breathtaking sophistry. Her
study lacks academic rigour and is outrageously misleading.
No-one disputes that sexual abuse occurs and is abhorrent. No-one knows the
actual prevalence of sexual abuse, but many make guesses. Findings about sexual abuse are not a
matter of impression, theory, opinion or speculation. They must be
evidence-based on facts properly determined from empirical scientific
methodology.
Her "research" is similar to a raft of other retrospective studies
which drew fatally flawed conclusions from unverified data. The quite silly
idea that one in every four females and 9 per cent of males are sexually
abused by age 16 has long since been discredited. During her six years of work, Dr Julich apparently did not raise her head to do a reality
check.
She gathered data from a miniscule sample of 21 "survivors" and
reports from a self-help "survivor" group. She must prove she
externally corroborated the abuse allegations and that her thesis properly
accounted for the well-known range of biases inherent in such retrospective
studies. It is illogical to extrapolate such "findings" to the
general population.
In the light of accurate Ministry of Justice statistics on sexual abuse
convictions, her conclusion that only 7.5% of abuse is reported is utter
nonsense, as is her finding that an "offender" averages 50 victims
before being caught. Her attribution of the Stockholm Syndrome is
laughable.
If 8,600 children are sexually abused for the FIRST time EVERY year, the
entire population will have been sexually abused over a very short period of
time. And she claims this costs $2.4 Billion annually!
Her reported conclusions rely on inadequate data, ill-informed speculation,
discredited ideology and misguided beliefs. No doubt Dr Julich
will now be treated as an "expert" and will influence social
policy. And Massey
University will
continue to award doctorates for this sort of appalling drivel. God Defend New Zealand.
The Dominion Post
July 25, 2002
Sex abuse bandwagon
by Martin O'Cahill
It is
with grave concern I read that we will have 8500 children sexually abused by
the end of the year, if we are to believe Shirley Julich,
of Massey University.
What alarms me is that again we have studies telling us how much in danger
our children are, while presenting little if any evidence. The article in
question concerns a six-year study based on only 26 interviews and then only
21 of them were "abuse victims". The massive flaw in this study is
that not all sexual encounters are abuse, but the tragedy is that the law
does not differentiate abusive and non-abusive sex.
From those few interviews we are asked to believe that 8500 people will be
abused. When 8500 cases don't materialise then these experts trot out all
sorts of psychobabble to justify their original estimates. Maybe the
estimates were wrong in the first place. At the time of the last Telethon in
1988, I seem to recall a previous "study" telling us that one in
four girls would be sexually abused. A study about the ensuing moral panic
might be more productive.
Following on the heels of the questionable decision to resume the $10,000 ACC
handouts, this study, I am sure, will lead to an appeal to the Government for
more taxpayers' money to keep the counsellors, detectives, psychologists,
doctors and all involved with the sexual abuse industry in their jobs.
When my taxes are going to be called on then I want better proof than this.
There are many other studies available that disagree with Dr Julich but no one wants to discuss those. Why?
This is just another case of jumping on the moral panic bandwagon.
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