Why Invest to Prevent Child Abuse? The Budgetary Impact of Direct, Indirect and Collateral Derived Costs

Abstract

Violence, and neglect in childhood, present innumerable economic costs to nations, whose impact on spending the public budget fluctuates between 15% and 25% of the annual government budget, as shown by several studies carried out in the United States, the European Union, and Mexico. The Center of Developing Child, of Harvard, emphazises that during the first years of life, the development of the brain can be physiologically altered by the prolonged and severe abuse of a child, over time, the brain of a 3 year old child, grows disproportionately large and heavy [1], reaching nearly 90% of the size of an adult brain. This alteration in the development of the brain can negatively impact the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development, whose consequences will always be present, even 30, 40 or 50 years later. International studies with significant data, are herein in summary presented. All in unison insists not only on preventing but on eradicating child maltreatment, considering this scourge as the determining element that havoc in government budgets. With an encourage exhortatory that by investing in preventing children from violence, a significant reduction in gross domestic product from 20 to 25% would be achieved