Child Abuse and Neglect Cost Pennsylvania $3.55 Billion Per Year

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Child abuse and neglect cost Pennsylvania $3.55 billion annually -- $2.11 billion a year in direct costs and $1.44 billion a year in indirect costs -- according to the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (PFSA).

"The costs that matter most, of course, are the physical and emotional harm that befall the victims of abuse and neglect, and the scars they carry with them afterward, often for life," PFSA Executive Director Angela Liddle said.

"We calculated the dollar cost of abuse and neglect to underscore the fact that the burden of child abuse and neglect falls on every Pennsylvanian," she added.  "Many people can't or choose not to see the problem, even though it occurs in every county in Pennsylvania and in every kind of community, whether it's urban, suburban, or rural."

Liddle spoke at ceremonies in the Capitol today marking the observance of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

More than 25,650 cases of suspected abuse were reported in Pennsylvania in 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Fifty children died from abuse, more than in either 2007 or 2006. Twenty of the children who died were under a year old.

Liddle said PFSA arrived at the $3.55 billion figure by separating out the costs of all of the services required to deal with the victims of child abuse and neglect and the offenders who commit abuse and neglect. PFSA released a detailed list of sources to document how it arrived at its total.

The breakdown of direct costs is as follows:

• State and county services to families, $1.3 billion. (This includes investigations by county agencies; operation of ChildLine, the toll-free hotline for reporting abuse and neglect; child abuse history and background checks; and operation of regional units of the Office of Children, Youth and Families.)
• Mental health services to victims, $69.8 million.
• Medical care to victims, $11 million.
• Public services (police, fire, paramedic, ambulance, and helicopter transport services), $17.2 million.
• Foster care services, $715.9 million.

The breakdown of indirect costs is as follows:

• Special education, $5.47 million.
• Juvenile justice system, $59.9 million.
• Lost productivity to society, $157.4 million.
• Quality of life (dollar value of pain and suffering and lost quality of life to victims and their families), $1.2 billion.
• Adult criminal justice system, $18.2 million.

"Certainly, prevention is worth it in its own right," Liddle said. "Saving children from the trauma of abuse and neglect is obviously what we need to do. But you can also see from this list of costs that effective prevention could also potentially result in a significant reduction in costs currently borne by the people of our Commonwealth."

PFSA works through schools, early childhood education centers, religious institutions, and social service agencies to teach "mandated reporters" to recognize the signs of child abuse and neglect and how to appropriately report such cases.

Mandated reporters are people who frequently come into contact with children in the course of performing their jobs and are required by law to report abuse and neglect. They include doctors and nurses, health and social service workers, teachers and school employees, law enforcement authorities, and members of the clergy.

PFSA also works with affiliated member agencies across Pennsylvania to provide information, educational materials, and programs that teach and support good parenting practices.

PFSA presented nearly 300 training sessions on reporting child abuse and neglect throughout Pennsylvania during the past year. These sessions provided face-to-face training for nearly 7,000 mandated reporters.

For more information, visit the PFSA Web site at www.pa-fsa.org. To report suspected child abuse or neglect call ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance