When most of us think of the impact of sexual violence, we think of the physical or psychological pain and trauma caused by the incident — but rarely of the economic costs that the victim then has to bear for the rest of their life. And this is exactly Liz Karns’ area of research.

Karns is a lawyer and epidemiologist whose practice involves applying statistical methods to legal problems such as sexual assault damages, and occupational and environmental injuries. She holds a BA in Economics from Reed College, an MPH in Epidemiology from Rutgers University, and a JD from Quinnipiac University Law School. Currently she is a senior lecturer in Statistics and Data Science in the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, Cornell University.

Watch Liz’s interview with eCornell, “Adding It Up: The Lifetime Costs of Sexual Violence and Misconduct”: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyDv-NAP3Xc>.

TW: Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence, Rape

Chapters

00:02:04 Introduction

00:03:33 Economic Costs of Physical and Psychological Injuries, Lost Opportunities

00:05:46 Economic Damages of Sexual Violence and Abuse on Campus

00:07:40 The ‘But-For’ Argument

00:08:54 Injury from Car Crashes vs. Injury from Sexual Violence

00:10:13 Can We Attach a Monetary Cost to Sexual Crimes?

00:13:55 Why Money Matters, and Why It’s Important to Focus on Subsequent Costs

00:15:18 How Perpetrators Can Be Made to Pay

00:16:36 Tax and Wage Garnishment

00:18:19 Victims Need Time to Recover, and to Decide if Reporting Is Worth It

00:21:30 Recovering, and Documenting All Costs

00:23:27 Societal Change Takes Effort, Laws Supporting Economic Argument

00:25:06 Does Backlash Mean Progress?

References

Peterson C, DeGue S, Florence C, Lokey CN. “Lifetime Economic Burden of Rape Among U.S. Adults.” Am J Prev Med. 2017 Jun;52(6):691-701. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.11.014. Epub 2017 Jan 30. PMID: 28153649; PMCID: PMC5438753.

“Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice.” The Center for Public Integrity, 2010. <https://cloudfront-files-1.publicintegrity.org/documents/pdfs/Sexual%20Assault%20on%20Campus.pdf>.

Cantor, D., Fisher, B., Chibnall, S., Harps, S., Townsend, R., Thomas, G., Lee, H., Kranz, V., Herbison, R., & Madden, K. (2019). Report on the AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. Association of American Universities.

Koss, M.P., Gidycz, C.A., Wisniewski, N. (1987). The scope of rape: Incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of higher education students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(2), 162–170. https://doi.org/10.1037%2F0022-006X.55.2.162

Van Dam, Andrew. “Less than 1% of rapes lead to felony convictions. At least 89% of victims face emotional and physical consequences.” The Washington Post, 2018. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/06/less-than-percent-rapes-lead-felony-convictions-least-percent-victims-face-emotional-physical-consequences/>.

See Also

“The MeToo Backlash.” Harvard Business Review, 2019. <hbr.org/2019/09/the-metoo-backlash>

“A Wider Lens on the MeToo Backlash: Who Pays for ...A Wider Lens on the MeToo Backlash: Who Pays for Societal Change?” The New York Times, 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/world/asia/depp-heard-metoo-women.html>.

Cover art by Cato Benschop (IG: @catobenschop).

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