Intimate Partner Violence Sociology

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Pages: 3

The Costs of Intimate Partner Violence to Women: A Social Determinants of Health Approach

Introduction
It has been well-established that violence against women (VAW) incurs significant costs, including those related to both preventing or dealing with violence (such as police costs), and those incurred by the affects of violence (such as health costs). Since the late 1980’s, over 100 examinations of the wide range of economic costs associated with violence against women have been conducted in numerous jurisdictions, with a few focusing specifically on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Economic studies have either relied upon national level population-based data for cost calculations (e.g., KPMG Management Consulting 1994; Max, Rice, Finkelstein, Bardwell, and Leadbeater, 2004;) or have conducted case studies by collecting retrospective costs for samples of women (e.g. Office of Women's Policy, 1996; 1998; Yodanis, Godenzi, &
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Public expenditures on crisis lines, police and judicial services, short term councilling, shelters etc. are designed to support women to leave abusive partners. Hence, “leaving” is the primary social solution proscribed for women who experience IPV. Despite this, costing studies generally do not distinguish between costs incurred by women who have separated from partners versus those who currently are in such relationships or between costs incurred toward preventing violence and those incurred by the failure to do so. Common-sense assumptions suggest that abuse ends or declines after women leave abusive partners and that associated costs also should decline. Indeed, social policy aimed at supporting women to leave can be viewed as being intended to reduce the costs of violence. However, these assumptions have not been tested, and the extension to which costs are incurred after women have left abusive partners are not