4,933 million euros. That is the direct cost of gender and sexual violence in 2022. 0.37% of GDP and 104 euros per capita. In the case of gender violence, the economic cost would be 4,085 million and the remaining 848 million euros would correspond to sexual violence outside the couple.” Although it is difficult to put a price on pain, it is necessary to know it, to understand the magnitude of the problem and a reduction in the acceptance of this reality. Because this is the high price that society must pay for the existence of sexist violence in Spain,” says Carmen Martínez, Government delegate against Gender Violence of the Ministry of Equality.
This is indicated by the study ‘Impact of gender violence and sexual violence against women in Spain: an assessment of its costs in 2022’ prepared by the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH). This is the second edition of the study that was already carried out in 2019 and which on this occasion includes, along with gender violence, also estimates of the costs of sexual violence against women outside the scope of relationships.
The objective of this very complex work is to analyze the impacts derived from the violence suffered by women in the context of their partner or ex-partner relationships and from sexual violence against women outside of that area and to carry out a monetary valuation. of the types of costs that both forms of violence have entailed in Spain in 2022.
But what are tangible costs? The researchers have used four itineraries: work-productive (lost hours of work, loss of work, inactivity, Social Security contributions…), health (health care, pharmacology…), legal-police (lawyers, judges , police officers…) and others, which include those derived from transfers and accommodation and the services of third sector organizations, such as shelters.
In all of them, more than one estimate has been made, offering a range of values ??that thus includes a conservative option that can be taken as a lower limit along with other alternatives that reflect reality from a broader perspective.
Furthermore, for each of the types of costs considered in each itinerary, the report provides information on its distribution among different affected groups or agents: female victims, family members and close friends, public sector, employers or third sector organizations.
The work calculates the direct costs based on the 2,233,456 women who suffered gender violence in 2022 and the 105,171 victims of sexual assault (data extrapolated from the 2019 Macrosurvey on sexist violence.
The researchers have used several methodologies. One of them establishes three possible scenarios based on different groups of female victims according to the type of gender violence suffered: physical and sexual violence with limiting injuries; physical and sexual violence according to the severity of the violence; and physical, sexual, emotional violence and fear.
With countless sources on gender violence, researchers have estimated three possible costs among the victims: 1,378 million, if physical and/or sexual violence that causes a deterioration in health is taken into account; 2,033 million, if the focus is on physical and/or sexual violence, although differentiating by its degree of severity, and 3,015 million euros if physical, sexual, emotional violence and fear of the partner are taken into account.
The authors conclude that the results on gender violence that are closest to reality following this second methodology correspond to the third of the options, the amount of which amounts to 3,015 million euros in 2022, which represents 0.23% of GDP and 64 euros per person.
And the intangible costs that put a value on women’s suffering? The authors have not included them, although they are even higher, because these damages are not limited to one year, but are maintained over time.
