Cost of Mental Health Care for Victims of Crime in the United States, 1991

The main objective of this survey was to determine the number of crime victims receiving mental health counseling, by type of crime, and the annual cost of treatment for each type of crime victim. Multiplying these two figures would yield an estimate of the annual financial cost of mental health care for crime victims. For this survey, mental health professionals were sampled from eight professional organizations and were asked questions about their clients during 1991. Respondents were instructed to count only those clients whose primary reason for being treated was because they were previously crime victims, regardless of whether the criminal victimization was the presenting issue at the time the client was first treated. Interviews were structured to first elicit information about the number of victims served for each type of crime. Respondents were then asked for details about the type and length of treatment for the crime type most frequently encountered by the respondent. Similar information was obtained for each additional crime type mentioned by the respondent, in descending order of frequency. Variables include the number of adults, youths, and children served