The United States government spent an estimated $5.4 billion last year at the state and federal level to incarcerate adults convicted of sex crimes against children under age 18, according to a new study.
The study calculated annual spending on incarcerated adults convicted of sex crimes against children under age 18 in US federal and state prisons and sex offender civil commitment facilities. The findings, which appear in the journal Sexual Abuse, highlight the cost of what is considered a preventable public health problem.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys under age 18 experience sexual abuse during childhood. Research suggests that about 12% of the world’s children will experience some form of sexual abuse before they turn 18.
“The costs for this incarceration are extraordinary,” says study author Elizabeth J. Letourneau, professor in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s department of mental health and director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse.
“We spend billions of dollars on criminal justice remedies after child sexual abuse has already occurred, and yet there are very limited resources for preventing this abuse from occurring in the first place.”
The study notes that the US federal government budgeted $1.5 million in 2021 to support child sexual abuse prevention research. Research aimed at identifying ways to reduce child sexual abuse has focused on the importance of perpetrator prevention. Promising prevention efforts include online self-help intervention programs for people with sexual attraction to minors and middle school education programs designed to reduce child sexual abuse by promoting responsible behaviors with younger children and with peers.
For their study, the researchers used publicly available sources—including US Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Prisoner Statistics data—to calculate annual cost estimates for incarcerating adults convicted of sex crimes against children under age 18:
🤣🤣🤣 OMG. 😳😲 Nationwide, each year, the U.S. spends on prevention less than 3/100ths of 1% of what it spends on all minor-involved sex offense incarceration. 😭😭😭
(I am only laughing because that is such an incomprehensibly small amount that if I weren’t laughing hysterically, I would be crying hysterically for all the suffering that is NOT being prevented or elevated.)
It’s equally outrageous that the idiots with pitchforks & torches aren’t looking at who’s taking home all of that $5.4 billion every year. Truly unbelievable how their emotions are being crassly and easily manipulated by law makers, law enforcement, the criminal legal industry, and the it-bleeds-it-leads news media! 😡🤬
(But no crazier than one insane Russian thug devastating millions of innocent lives for his own ego gratification.😡🤬)
“….the US federal government budgeted $1.5 million in 2021 to support child sexual abuse prevention research.”
I work with government programs and I can sincerely state that $1.5 million IS NOTHING!! N-o-t-h-i-n-g!
I would wager that U.S. federal government employees spend MORE than $1.5 million, each day, on their morning Starbucks, for f*k’s sake!!
Many thanks to ACSOL for posting this information about the report. 👏🏻
(Now, I wonder if we could just roll it up like a newspaper and beat Senators Graham, Hawley and Blackburn [even more] senseless with it!! 😒😒😒
I don’t recall any of them berating Judge KBJ with, “Do you realize the federal government spends [$3? $5? $8.20?], each year, attempting to prevent child pornography and minor-involved sex offenses??) 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, you don’t recall hearing that either, do you?? 🤣
One of the best pieces of literature on the subject. Some people are finally waking up to the fact that the “Justice” machine has failed us in so many ways with respect to child sexual abuse. So much time and energy has been wasted on propping up this machine over the decades, that, along the way, society lost sight of the goal (elimination of child sexual abuse) and instead focused on using it as an outlet for their own anger, angst, and malice.
but…but…sex offense registries are prevention
Pride or prejudice or areogance in justce? So who is judging today? Does all this sound like a new formula in a judgmental call. Who’s a the sex offender or offender today or who is guilty as charged. So it that the bottom line we would all have to say. Are we the people with so many mixed emotion buttons today’ guilty, or is it a bit pathetic to say its all about the database that seems to have all the answers at the click of a mouse, or just maybe its the mom that is looking out for her child that went astray.
Just maybe its the boy or girl man or woman that knew to much. Guess many can take care of business on ones own account or tell it to a judge of one’s peers or who is reaching out today for some reasoning into all this. Guess its good ole ACSOL to the rescue or where does one turn to when the chips are down….Vain Justice, Blind Justice or True Justice or are we all on probation? I would ask many of you all that question but I’m sure your smoking gun will find you out.
Can we all reach out on crime and prevention in an ethical way or in other ways Who is playing trick or treat with a “trick or treat method” or who’ is doing the tricking and who’s doing the treating. Seems the treating comes in different forms as does the abuse.
So why go to law, Why build prisons. Why judge thy neighbor. Prevention sounds about right but I’m not the professor on Gillian’s Island like many of you all mouse clickers. I at times hate even going to DC if that is is necessary measure to end this.
Yes at times things don’t look pretty and things don’t always go the way mankind wants it to. Is America reaching out with this computer in unknown regions with this crime and punishment? Sure molestation is bad enough and even setting one up is another. Could many say who goes to court without a charge or is anything new under the sun about crime, punishment or prevention. Guess the quick answer is its all in the database or all about the database.which in many respects is so blind today.
Of course more government funding should be applied to prevention rather than reactive measures! Since the vast majority of child molestation is perpetrated by persons known to and trusted by the victim, what would politicians do to prevent that? My fear is that if more funding becomes available, political imperatives will induce focusing on [people with] prior [convictions] and [people listed on the registry].
Nobody wants to hear the truth that children are in more danger from someone who attends a backyard barbecue than from a [person listed on the registry who lives] down the street. During any money grab, [people on the list] will invariably be further [vilified] and sanctioned. Just imagine someone like Josh Hawley deciding how to spend that bit of pork in his state.
Call me cynical if you like.