Whittlesea CALD Communities Family Violence Research Report 2012 | Page 16

15 The scale of the problem and the impact that family violence has on the Australian community was captured by a 2009 KPMG Management Consulting Report which estimated the cost of family violence to the Australian economy to be $13.6 billion and projected to be $15.6 billion in 20202021. The Report identifies some of the main costs that contribute to the economic impact of family violence including: ? Pain, suffering and premature mortality; the costs associated with pain and suffering attributable to violence and the cost of premature mortality which was calculated by attributing a statistical value to years of life lost. ? Health costs including private and public health costs associated with treating the effects of violence on the victim, perpetrator and children. ? Production-related costs including lost production (wages plus profit) through absenteeism, search and hiring costs, lost unpaid work, retraining costs, lost productivity of victim, perpetrator, management, co-workers, family and friends and permanent loss of labour capacity. ? Consumption related costs including costs associated with replacing damaged property, moving costs and settlement of bad debts. ? Second generation costs 26 including private and public health costs associated with childcare, changing schools, counselling, child protection services, remedial/special education, increased future use of government services, increased juvenile and adult crime. Reliable estimates of the level of family violence in CALD communities as a distinct group are hard to come by. The results of the limited research that has been conducted in this area are mixed, with some studies indicating that women from CALD backgrounds experience higher levels of family 27 violence comparative to the general population and others indicating that CALD women experience 28 lower or similar levels of family violence to the general population. 26 KPMG Management Consulting, ‘The Cost of Violence Against Women and Their Children’ March 2009, 5-6 and 21. O’Donnell CJ, Smith A & Madison JR 2002 ‘Using demographic risk factors to explain variations in the incidence of violence against women’ Journal of Interpersonal Violence 17(12) 1239-1262 in Morgan, A & Chadwick H ‘Key Issues in Domestic Violence’ Research in Practice Summary Paper No.7, December 2009, Australian Institute of Criminology, 5 28 Bassuk E, Dawson R & Huntington N 2006 ‘Intimate partner violence in extremely poor women: Longitudinal patterns and risk markers’ Journal of Family Violence 21, 387-399; Mouzos J & Makkai T 2004 ‘Women’s experiences of male violence: Findings from the Australian component of the international violence against women survey (IVAWS)’ Research & Public Policy Series No.56, Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology in Domestic Violence’ Research in Practice Summary Paper No.7, December 2009, Australian Institute of Criminology, 5 27