Author: Michelle W. Berger's article, Childhood exposure to trauma costs society $ 458 billion annually.
Children are exposed to crime in a number of ways. They become victims themselves or witness violence against a family member or someone in their community. Sometimes they feel the aftershocks simply by having a parent who experienced such an event firsthand.
This is true for millions of children in the United States each year, and the consequences are well-documented: The children suffer physically and mentally, and they’re at greater risk for behavioral problems and repeat victimization. They often come into contact with the criminal justice system, both as juveniles and later in life, and they’re more likely to use substances.
What’s less understood, however, is how much access people have to treatment following these incidents and what this problem costs. Penn Law doctoral student Michal Gilad and Abraham Gutman, an economist and health policy expert now atThe Philadelphia Inquirer, spent several years conducting a three-part analysis to answer these questions.
The researchers discovered that although most states do offer services to children exposed to crime, bureaucratic hurdles make them difficult to access. Adverse outcomes that result from a lack of treatment cost society more than $458 billion each year, with a lifetime tally of more than $194,000 per individual. That’s about $3,300 annually per person. Beyond that, there are societal costs that are harder to quantify. The researchers published their results in the University of Illinois Law Review and the Fordham Urban Law Journal, and they have a third paper forthcoming.
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