Combating Violence against Women. Stocktaking Study on the Measures and Actions taken in Council of Europe Member States
- Document number
- 1251
- Date
- 2006
- Title
- Combating Violence against Women. Stocktaking Study on the Measures and Actions taken in Council of Europe Member States
- Author/publisher
- Carol Hagemann-White, Council of Europe
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Women's rights; Women; Control and regulation of prostitution, Protection, Punishable forms of prostitution, Violence, Human rights violation,
- Summary
- There are still relatively few European studies on the costs of violence, because they need a foundation in data that describe both prevalence –the number of women affected – and incidence – the number of violent incidents that occur per year and thus call for agency responses; these data are only beginning to be available. Estimates have been calculated for the United Kingdom, Finland, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Most studies focus on domestic violence against women, defined as the physical, psychological and sexual violence to women by men. While methodological approaches vary, in general three different kinds of information are used: incidence or prevalence rates of violence, rates of how many women sought help at particular services as a consequence of domestic violence, and the costs of these particular services and activities. Based on these figures – the incidence of violence, the frequency of service use, legal and police activities, and the costs of services and activities – estimates of the total cost of violence for a city, region or country are calculated. Costs of violence occur in a very broad range of areas and sectors: health care, social services, economic output, police, criminal justice and civil legal sector and housing. These categories of costs can be grouped into the two broad types of indirect and direct costs. Indirect (or intangible) costs and benefits refer to the human suffering, pain and fear incurred by victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking, swell as the disruption of their lives,e.g. having to abandon their personal effects and social networks while seeking safety, being forced to change jobs or move. Included are long-term effects of acts of violence on victims and perpetrators, such as psychological and psychosomatic illnesses, but also in some studies lost wages and forgone benefits. Indirect costs are very difficult to assess, as the physical and psychological suffering of women, their friends and close relatives and children does not haven objective monetary value in itself. Direct (or tangible) costs and benefits are used to refer to costs which are associated with the provision of arrange of facilities, resources and services to a women as a result of herbing subject to violence. Hence, tangible cost results directly from acts of violence or from the necessary responses of social agents who are charged with preventing such acts or mitigating their effects.
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