According to Alda Facio, Director of the Women, Gender and Justice Programme at the Latin American Crime Prevention Institute in Costa Rica, these costs range from hospitalization for sexually and physically abused infants, children and women, medical treatment for unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted diseases, to legal fees and support for battered-women's shelters, and foster homes for children. But the price of violence is not only monetary, said Facio. The inestimable cost of lost productivity by damaged individuals unable to function fully, if at all, of lost psychic identities, and even loss of lives must also be considered. They lose their sense of identity which has been eroded to the point where they accept the contaminated version of reality dictated by their abusers. Think of the women who pay with their lives, either by their own hands or the hands of others.
Family violence is a human development issue.
It damages wives, mothers and daughters who are battered, raped, deprived of human dignity and the means to meet their basic needs. It also traumatizes the children living in these homes, where they witness or are subjected routinely to beatings, sexual and verbal abuse, and neglect. To pursue effective development strategies, agencies and organizations that work with women and children must increase their sensitivity to the issue of violence and make it central to their work. Family violence is a human rights issue. Deeply rooted in cultural and religious gender bias, it is supported, even institutionalized, by many patriarchal societies.