The aim of this study was to estimate the lifetime cost of sexual violence and abuse in Essex, UK and evidence return on investment for support services. There were three main methodological components to this study. First, a rapid review using a systematic approach was be conducted to identify relevant unit costs that may be attributable to child and adult sexual violence and abuse. Second, administrative data was analysed, and regression predictions based on multiple imputation used to infer adjusted relative proportions attributable to each victim of sexual violence and abuse. Administrative data was also be used to infer the duration of harm where relevant. Finally, an estimate of the cost of sexual violence and abuse was be calculated by cost component, differentiating between child sexual violence and adult sexual violence.
For further information and the article, please see: Estela Capelas Barbosa: Final report (vamhn.co.uk)
Photo credit: Sarah Agnew / Unsplash
In health-care settings, asking about trauma is recognised as good practice. Yet in research studies, whether to address trauma and how is contested.
Some studies prioritise inclusive samples and questions about lived experience. Others avoid potentially retraumatising topics and exclude people considered too vulnerable to participate. While ethical review and safeguarding is essential, at what point does protection become paternalism, and who gets to decide where that line is drawn? Just as harm to participants is unethical, might exclusion from research – at times – also be unethical and a form of epistemic harm?
For further information and the article, please see: Risk, responsibility, and choice in research ethics – The Lancet Psychiatry
Photo credit: fizkes / Shutterstock.com
When economists estimate the health, social, and economic costs of violence, they often apply the common economic practice of ‘discounting’. Discounting involves reducing the estimated value of the future relative to the present, year by year, by a given percentage.
We argue that economists should more fully recognise the longer-term harms of violence in their cost-benefit analyses and re-examine the practice of discounting future health costs. Such a change could lead to a re-evaluation of the level of public funds to invest in violence prevention and support the health needs of victims.
Trafficking is used as a case study to illustrate the impact of discounting on costing violence.
For further information and the article, please see: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.858337/full?utm_source
