Monday Jun 24, 2024

Ep. 3: Liz Karns on the Lifetime Economic Costs of Sexual Violence and Misconduct

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>.

Ep. 3: Liz Karns on the Lifetime Economic Costs of Sexual Violence and Misconduct

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