Comprehensive Response to Violent Crimes Against Older Persons (Abuse and Maltreatment of the Elderly, P 316-334, 1982, Jordan I Kosberg, ed. See NCJ-91500)

• NCJ Number: 91505
• Author(s): V H Jaycox; L J Center
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: John Wright, PSG Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter considers the range of crime prevention and victim assistance services which have proved useful for the elderly, the rationale for combining crime prevention with victim assistance, and recent trends in these areas.

Abstract

Individual crime prevention activities that can help the elderly include residential security surveys, property-marking programs, improved residential security hardware and precautions, and increased precaution on the street. Collective crime prevention strategies are block clubs, Neighborhood Watch, citizen street patrols, building patrols, whistle or airhorn programs, telephone assurance programs, escort service, case monitoring, and environmental design. Crisis intervention services such as counseling, medical assistance, and compensation as well as witness assistance services are important in meeting the needs of victims, particularly those who are elderly. Victim assistance programs that serve the elderly must perform the following functions if they are to be effective: victim identification, victim contact, assessment of victim needs, provision of direct service, referral, and following up victims' cases. Although both crime prevention and victim assistance programs are both associated with criminal justice concerns, they have developed independently; however, for the elderly, who have a serious fear of crime, are vulnerable to serious physical and emotional consequences from victimization, and are often not adept at using the social service system, a merger of the two movements is appropriate. One encouraging development is the institutionalization of crime prevention and victim assistance services by making them available through regular elderly service providers. Another positive step is the emergence of peer counselors in anticrime programs for the elderly. The current policy of austerity in government spending is likely to change the form of support for crime prevention and victim assistance programs for the elderly, but such funding gaps can be addressed by incorporating crime prevention and victim assistance counseling into existing senior citizen programs and by using the elderly themselves as volunteer workers in crime prevention and victim assistance programs. Twenty-seven bibliographic entries are provided.