Child abuse costs E Asia, Pacific $209 billion a year: U.N. report

Child abuse and neglect are costing countries in East Asia and the Pacific an estimated $209 billion a year, equivalent to 2 per cent of the region’s GDP, researchers said on Tuesday in the region’s first study of the economic impact of abuse. Child abuse affects victims’ education, long-term physical and mental health and work performance, and increases the risk of adult aggression, violence and criminality, the researchers said. Some maltreatment is preventable. Earlier studies in the United States and Europe, cited by the researchers, found that the right forms of prevention can reduce severe forms of maltreatment by up to 50 per cent.

We all know that violence against children must stop because it is morally wrong. This research shows that inaction about violence results in serious economic costs to countries and communities.

U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional director for East Asia and the Pacific, Daniel Toole

UNICEF commissioned international experts to carry out the research. They aggregated data from 364 previous studies of neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and the impact of witnessing domestic violence, and estimated the costs involved. The most common form of abuse in the region is emotional, which affects 42 percent of girls in high income countries. In China alone it affects some two thirds of children aged 3 to 6 years old. East Asia has one of the world’s highest levels of ill-health caused by child sexual abuse. About one third of men and boys have experienced physical abuse in lower middle income countries throughout the Pacific and East Asian region, and 22 percent of women and girls have experienced sexual abuse.

Asia-Pacific