CACs Save Community Dollars
In 2005, the National Children's Advocacy Center received a special emphasis grant from National Children's Alliance to evaluate the costs and benefits to communities who utilize the Child Advocacy Center model for intervening in cases of severe child abuse.
Study Highlights
- On a per case basis, tradition investigations were 36% more expensive than a CAC investigation.
- The average per case cost of a traditional investigation was $3,949 compared to $2,902 for an investigation involving a CAC.
- This equates approximately $1,000 in savings per case!
In addition
- Annual investigation costs per 1,000 children were 41% lower in the CAC community than in the non-CAC community
- CAC style investigations result in higher perceived public benefits
Highlights taken from the Executive Summary, Findings from the NCAC Cost-Benefit Analysis of Community Responses to Child Maltreatment.
Here in New Hampshire
Applying findings from this study to the 1,158 child abuse cases that were investigated through a New Hampshire CAC in 2006 equates approximately $1,200,000 in savings to New Hampshire communities!