FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? OJP
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2002?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 202/307-0703
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES EFFORT TO HELP
ELDERLY CRIME VICTIMS
WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The Justice Department
today announced grant awards to the Denver District Attorney?s Office, Legal
Services of Eastern Michigan and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville,
Texas to help improve services for older victims of fraud.? These grants, provided by the Department?s
Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), total approximately $200,000 each, and will
help develop innovative research, training and materials that OVC will
distribute to law enforcement officers, victim service providers and
professionals who work with older adults.
?The
U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2020, nearly 25 percent of the
U.S. population will be age 60 or older.
A 1999 AARP study estimates that 56 percent of all telemarketing fraud
victims are age 50 or over.
?All too often older people are easy targets
for various types of financial fraud.
These crimes can have a devastating impact on all victims, but
particularly on older victims, who sometimes lose their entire life?s savings,?
said OVC Director John W. Gillis.? ?My
hope is that the work of our grantees will help build a foundation to bolster
the response to elder fraud victims nationwide.?
The three grantees were competitively
selected from 48 applicants, and will be undertaking a wide array of
activities. The Denver District Attorney?s Office will partner with faith-based
organizations to serve 40,000 elderly in the Denver area through efforts such
as sending weekly financial crime prevention messages, training volunteers to
work with victims and improving financial crime reporting.? It will also hire a community advocate who
will work with the faith-based organizations to encourage the detection and
reporting of elder fraud cases.
Legal Services of Eastern Michigan, based in
Flint, will develop a comprehensive elder fraud training program covering
predatory lending, home solicitation, financial exploitation, and telemarketing
fraud.? The training can be modified for
many different types of participants, such as law enforcement officers, bankers
and senior care center directors.
Sam Houston State University?s National
Institute for Victim Studies will examine the relationship between natural
disasters and elder financial exploitation, using Tropical Storm Allison in
Texas and tornadoes in Kansas and Oklahoma as models.? The University will also examine the types of information
available to older people to warn them about fraud in the wake of natural
disasters.
Information about other OVC programs, publications and conferences are
available through the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Website at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc
and from the OVC Resource Center at 1-800/627-6872.
Information about other OJP bureaus and
program offices is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov.? Media should contact OJP?s Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs at 202/307-0703.? ???
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