The financial cost of gender-based violence

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 07/07/2021

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) made an effort to quantify the financial cost of gender-based violence, trying to persuade the EU member states to channel these funds in a more effective way. 

According to the Institute’s study, which will be published in August, gender-based violence across the EU costs rise to €366 billion a year. Violence against women makes up 79 % of this cost, amounting to €289 billion.

The biggest cost comes from physical and emotional impact (56 %), followed by criminal justice services (21 %) and lost economic output (14 %). Other costs can include civil justice services (for divorces and child custody proceedings for example), housing aid and child protection. Intimate partner violence, which shot up during the Covid-19 pandemic, makes up almost half (48 %, €174 billion) of the cost of gender based violence. Intimate partner violence against women makes up 87 % of this sum (€151 billion).

The calculation though is based on extrapolated data from the United Kingdom, and not on actual data from all EU countries, but EIGE is calling the states to make their own calculations, by using the proposed cost-benefit methodology and getting internal detailed data from public services such as law enforcement and the justice sector, stressing that, as gender-based violence is under-reported, countries also need survey data to get a true idea of the number of victims. 

Collecting detailed data on different forms of gender-based violence is an obligation under the Istanbul Convention, which all EU countries have signed and 21 have ratified.