Elder Abuse and Mistreatment

Vulnerable older adults face high risks of financial, physical, and psychological abuse. Too often, these abuses go undetected or are disregarded after they are discovered. Frequently family members or caregivers are the perpetrators; thus the abuse can mistakenly be seen as a private, family matter.

Elder abuse includes intentional actions by a caregiver or other trusted individual that causes harm to an older adult. Elder abuse can also include the failure of a caregiver or other responsible party to provide for the basic needs of an elder. The comprehensive definition of elder abuse includes financial exploitation of older people, as well as physical abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.

Background

Elder abuse and neglect is an understudied problem in the United States. Historically viewed as a social rather than a criminal problem, most states did not establish adult protective services units to address elder abuse until the mid-1980s. The extent of elder abuse is unknown, in part because of the lack of definitive and comprehensive research in the area.

Elder abuse is frequently perpetrated by a spouse, relative, or acquaintance, which increases the likelihood that crimes are being underreported. Low household income, unemployment or retirement, poor health, prior traumatic events, and low levels of social support all can indicate a higher likelihood that older people may experience mistreatment.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the medical and criminal justice communities lack comprehensive forensic guidelines for identifying elder abuse and mistreatment. Financial exploitation of older adults has also not been thoroughly studied because of problems with detection, conflicting definitions of the crime, and underreporting.

What OJP Is Doing

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has been working in cooperation with its grantees and partners to help close the gap in the current research and scholarship on elder abuse and mistreatment. One of NIJ’s primary objectives is to identify emerging promising practices and evaluate their effectiveness in improving prevention, detection, and intervention efforts. NIJ’s Elder Mistreatment Research Program has produced significant research into??determining the extent of elder abuse, identifying and evaluating forensic markers of elder physical and sexual abuse and neglect, and developing tools for use by practitioners in the field. The NIJ Journal??also has included an overview of studies on the prevalence and detection of elder abuse, which will help criminal justice professionals to identify the warning signs of violence against older people, including distinguishing between normal bruising patterns and those that result from abuse.

The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is involved in a variety of efforts to help combat elder abuse and assist those who have been abused, neglected, or exploited. OVC develops publications to help educate both victims and caregivers in methods of dealing with the trauma brought on by elder abuse and mistreatment. OVC has also created a series of three DVDs designed for specific audiences. Using firsthand accounts from older victims, these materials will help victim advocates, law enforcement officers, judges, and other professionals learn how to communicate effectively with victims and find them appropriate resources for intervention and support.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is developing a data collection instrument that will enable it to use existing information to analyze the crime of elder abuse.??BJS is also pursuing a project that will assess the records of adult protective services offices and law enforcement offices to provide insight into which elder abuse cases are reported to law enforcement, which are not reported, and why.