The Ministry of Equality has presented the study ‘Impact of gender violence and sexual violence against women in Spain: an assessment of its costs in 2022’.

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Gender-based violence and sexual violence

This is the second edition of the study that was already carried out in 2016 and that on this occasion incorporates, along with gender violence, also estimates of the costs of sexual violence against women outside the sphere of intimate partner relationships.

The report estimates that these two forms of violence against women will entail a total tangible cost of up to €4,933 million in 2022, which is 0.37% of GDP and €104 per capita. In the case of gender-based violence, the cost would be 4,085 million and the remaining 848 million euros would correspond to non-partner sexual violence.

These data have been obtained by applying one of the two methodologies used, which has allowed both types of violence to be taken into account, and is the one that yields the highest costs.

This is a complex and ambitious study that shows a range of possible costs, thus offering a very broad picture of the reality.

The second methodology applied only to gender-based violence allows for more detailed and adjusted estimates. Three possible costs are estimated: 1,378 million, if physical and/or sexual violence that causes a deterioration in health is taken into account; 2,033 million, if the focus is on physical and/or sexual violence, although differentiating by its degree of severity; and 3,015 million euros if physical, sexual, emotional and/or fear of the partner is taken into account.

The authors conclude that the results closest to reality following this second methodology correspond to the third of the options, which amounts to 3,015 million euros in 2022, representing 0.23% of GDP and 64 euros per person.

Methodology
The report, carried out by a multidisciplinary team of the University Institute of Economic and Social Analysis of the University of Alcalá, with the impulse, financing and supervision of the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, makes a thorough analysis of the scenarios of such a complex and wide reality as gender violence. On the one hand, it establishes two approaches, the macroeconomic and the microeconomic. The latter, in turn, is addressed in two sections that estimate the tangible and intangible costs, respectively.

As for the tangible costs, they are grouped into four major categories or itineraries: labor-productive, health, legal-police and others. In each of these four sections, they identify the different groups or agents affected: victims, families and relatives, the public sector, employers and third sector organizations.

The authors emphasize that a study based on several hypotheses, with several results, therefore, responds to the need to show several reasonable options that adjust to different scenarios of such a complex reality as gender-based violence.

Social awareness
The Ministry of Equality contributes with this study to provide more current and more accurate figures on the monetary value of the impacts produced by these two most common forms of violence against women.

The availability of this information contributes to raising awareness of the enormous scope of gender-based violence and sexual violence against women outside the couple.