Gender-Specific Burden of the Economic Cost of Victimization

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact of specific burden of the economic cost of victimization on gender. Gender-related victimization is disproportionately concentrated on women and girls. Forms include sexual assaults, intimate-partner violence, incest, genital mutilation, homicide, trafficking for sexual exploitation, and other sexual offences. Costs of violence against women are widespread throughout society. Every recognizable effect of violence has a cost whether it is direct or indirect. Direct costs come from the use of goods and services for which a monetary exchange is made. Direct costs exist for capital, labour, and material inputs. Indirect costs stem from effects of violence against women that have an imputed monetary exchange, such as lost income or reduced profit. Effects of violence against women also include intangible costs such as premature death and pain and suffering for which there is no imputed monetary value in the economy.