Jonathan Pederson
Katie Frey
Victimology
21 October 2016

On the Victimization of the Elderly: Two Decades in Review

For this week, I wanted to look into the victimization of the elderly. Thus, I read Christina Policastro’s dissertation entitled Victimization of the Elderly: An Application of Lifestyles/Routine Activities Theory, where she describes the results of a 1,257 sample group in comparison to statistics from the NCVS. The majority of the statistics draw upon two key crimes: elderly neglect and elderly abuse, however, results for the statistics vary, with some results as high as one in ten elderly citizens experiencing abuse. Policastro’s explanation for this variance comes from the complexity of the issue. It is difficult to determine what counts as abuse or not because of the vague definition of abuse. A Policastro writes,

“Although scholars generally agree that elder abuse involves a broad range of behaviors and occurs in diverse settings, there is considerable variation across studies with regard to what types of behaviors fall within each category of abuse, who is considered a perpetrator of “elder abuse,” and at what age an individual is classified as an “elder.” (Policastro 11).

Christina Policastro categories abuse into five different areas: Physical, Sexual, Psychological, Financial, and Neglect. What particularly sticks out in Policastro’s categorization is the financial abuse the elderly endure. She discusses the forms of financial exploitation the elderly face such as children binding their parents into legal contracts that would be counterintuitive to their interests. Though this is legally permissible, it is morally murky. Policastro discusses the underrepresentation of legal counsel afforded to the elderly, particularly when it comes to important legal work such as entitlement checks, inheritance, and right of attorney during medical procedures. She then argues that all of these forms of abuse, though not all entirely illegal, ought to be included into researching victimization.

Policastros assertions that the vagueness of definition accounts for the difficulty to attain accurate survey results hold true under independent research. A quick view into statistics on elderly victimization from both 1993 and 2013 reflects the claims Policastro made in her dissertation. The Bureau of Justice Statistics holds victims over the age of 65 to be a significantly low portion of overall crime. Their statistics, sorted by type of crime, claim lower than one percent of adults over the age of 65 are victimized. It is important to note that these statistics only chargeable crimes, whereas newer surveys account for elderly mistreatment. A study done by the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week in 2013 includes the extended definition offered by Policastro. The results of the study reflected a higher statistic than that of previous decades. The NCVRW reported, “people 60 and older made 14 percent of fraud complaints and 14 percent of identity theft complaints” (NCVC).

The NCVC report also reflected Policastros’ research by the perpetrator. Both the report and the dissertation concluded that the majority of the perpetrators are the family members of the elderly. As the report listed,

“Seventy-six percent of perpetrators of physical mistreatment of older adults were family members. Of those perpetrators, 57 percent were partners or spouses, 10 percent were children/ grandchildren, and 9 percent were other relatives” (NCVC).

Policastro accounts this statistic towards different manners she analyzes the scope of different theories. She applies more common theories such as routine theory, but the most sensible theory is the intraindividual explanation. This revolves around understanding the offender rather than the victim. Understanding the offenders’ intentions in harming their elders provides room for analysis towards the offenders upbringing.

Works Cited

National Center for Victims of Crime. "Elder Victimization." National Crime Victims' Rights Week (2013): n. pag. Print.
Policastro, Christina. "Victimization of the Elderly." An Application of Lifestyles/Routine Activities Theory (2013): n. pag. Georgia State University. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.
United States. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Elderly Victims. By Ronet Bachman. District of Columbia: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992. Print.