NCJ Number
191670
Date Published
2000
Length
195 pages
Annotation
This book examines the experience of older people as victims of crime and as perpetrators.
Abstract
This book explores the experience of older people, both as victims and occasionally as victimizers. The current debates about crime and the elderly are outlined and several myths are debunked. The experience of some older people may be the type of ordeal that makes the news, but it is also atypical. Nevertheless, there may be less dramatic tribulations suffered by the elderly. Until recently, both criminologists and law enforcement personnel have generally taken a relaxed view of or ignored elder victimization. In Chapter 1, the factors that have discouraged criminologists, and especially sociologists, from scrutinizing the mistreatment of elderly people in the family, and in the care of nursing homes are examined. Chapter 2 debunks the myths regarding the experience of elderly people and of the assumed caring relationship. Chapter 3 is concerned with the issue of victimization. It takes issue with the stereotypical, pathological images of ageism--that older people are like infants, natural victims, because of decaying physical and mental characteristics. Also discussed in this chapter is the generally-accepted notion that older people are treated as a homogeneous mass, devoid of individuality. Chapter 4 deals with the extent of victimization of older people in both private and public space. Chapter 5 examines the maxim that older people have an undue fear of crime in public spaces. Fear of crime by the elderly has been constituted as a new problem and has taken on the character of a myth. It is suggested that fear may have more substance than is generally acknowledged. Chapter 6 critically examines the traditional explanations of crimes against the elderly within private space, the household, and institutions. Chapter 7 outlines two main sociological approaches to the victimization of older people. Chapter 8 pursues this sociological theme by examining several further theories that attempt to explain victimization and harm at the interpersonal level. Chapters 9 and 10 approach crime and the elderly from a different standpoint. They examine the literature on older people as suspects and offenders in the criminal justice process, suggesting that older people are rational calculative beings, not dummy figures. Throughout this study, research references are primarily to North American studies. This qualified the validity of certain findings. It reflected the paucity of relevant Western European studies and the general failure of European criminology to take crimes against older people seriously, a trend further emphasized by a failure to study older people as offenders. Bibliography, and index