The Importance of Programming

The average lifetime cost, per victim of child abuse, is $210,012.This adds up to billions of dollars spent annually in the United States alone and includes lifetime estimates of:

• lost worker productivity
• healthcare costs
• special education costs, and
• child welfare and criminal justice expenditures.

A single year of these costs added up to $124 billion.[1] Broadening our scope to include community-based prevention programs has multiple benefits—children are less vulnerable to become victims of abuse, adults are prepared to listen to and report a disclosure of abuse, and there is a savings to communities of 19 to 1 over the long term costs which result from child abuse.[2]

“The real tragedy is that [child sexual abuse] robs children of their potential, setting into motion a chain of events and decisions that affect them throughout their lives.”

– Darkness to Light