Estimating the costs of
Sexual Violence
Calculating the services, emotional and productivity costs

Sexual violence and abuse against adults and children is a public health problem and a social problem that can affect victim-survivors for years. The impacts of violence are rarely short-term and can harm the victim-survivors for years resulting in consequent lifetime costs per person. Ignoring the root causes of violence creates a social and economic burden to society.

VISION and the Women’s Budget Group collaborated to create a calculator that estimates the lifetime costs of sexual violence in children and adults by national population and local area in England and Wales. This first-of-its-kind costing calculator offers a more realistic reflection of the long-term burden of sexual abuse and violence borne by both survivors and society. The key purpose is to support those working to provide services to people who have experienced or used sexual violence and abuse and commissioners of these services, and to demonstrate the economic and social burden of sexual violence if one fails to invest in effective prevention.

  • National and Local Area Calculator
  • specialist services calculator

How to use the calculator:

By using the Specialist Services Calculator, sexual violence support services can estimate the lifetime cost of their clients on society. Local authorities, commissioners, MPs, and the public can use the National and Local Area Calculator to determine the burden of sexual violence and abuse costs in their area.

Information and guidance on the calculator

1. Population

Please select either children or adults or tick in both boxes

2. National and Local Area

Please select the area to include

Area name

3. Types of service

Please select all that apply to build an accurate calculation

Cost to education
Cost to health & social care services
▲
Physical health
Mental health
Social care
Cost to justice system
▲
Police
Criminal justice
Civil justice
Incarceration
Cost to specialist services
QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Years) Loss
Productivity loss

How to use the calculator:

By using the Specialist Services Calculator, sexual violence support services can estimate the lifetime cost of their clients on society. Local authorities, commissioners, MPs, and the public can use the National and Local Area Calculator to determine the burden of sexual violence and abuse costs in their area.

1. Service users

Please identify the number of service users you would like to include

2. Types of service

Please select all that apply to build an accurate calculation

Cost to education
Cost to health & social care services
▲
Physical health
Mental health
Social care
Cost to justice system
▲
Police
Criminal justice
Civil justice
Incarceration
Cost to specialist services
QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Years) Loss
Productivity loss

It is important to note that the calculator results are an estimate. The calculator estimates a lifetime cost based on a 12-month (yearly) prevalence, meaning it estimates the lifetime burden of sexual violence for people who were victims in the previous 12 months. In other words, the total figure represents the current year’s prevalence of the lifetime cost. The data used for this calculator will be updated annually every March or April.

There are important caveats to note when using the calculator and interpreting the results.

  1. The results are likely to be conservative estimates of the lifetime cost burden of sexual violence.
  2. Cost of housing was not factored into our calculations because it is not captured in the Rape Crisis dataset.
  3. The variation in prevalence of sexual violence and abuse between local areas was not factored in due to relative low prevalence in the population. The prevalence of SVA is not the same across England and Wales localities. As result the calculation could overestimate the burden of SVA in wealthy areas with older populations and underestimate it in poorer areas with younger populations. While the calculator may overestimate the burden of sexual violence and abuse, given its conservative nature and that some costs attributable to sexual violence were not taken into account, this is unlikely, albeit possible.