What with World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and the Karen Klein story, elder abuse is suddenly in the spotlight.
Unfortunately, there is no national data source that gives a quantitative overview of elder abuse. The two biggest sources of crime data in this country – the FBI’s UCR data and the National Crime Victimization Survey — don’t really address the issue very well.
Instead, the Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a report based on National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which did collect complete elder victimization data for Michigan from 2005-2009. NIBRS, which is similar to the UCR data, captures additional details and information.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Half (49.5%) of violent victimizations of the elderly known to law enforcement in Michigan involved serious violence— murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnapping.
- Three out of 10 elderly victims of reported violence were victimized by their own child or grandchild.
- More than a third of violent victimizations of elderly women (37.8%) involved the victim’s child or grandchild, compared to less than a quarter of victimizations of elderly men (22.5%).
- The rate of reported violence against elderly men (247.7 per 100,000 males age 65 or older) was 1.4 times higher than the rate for elderly women (172.9 per 100,000 women age 65 or older).
- The rate of reported violent victimization by a stranger was more than 2 times greater for elderly men (65.5 per 100,000 males age 65 or older) than for elderly women (29.2 per 100,000 women age 65 or older).
Some of this is not surprising to me. Of course elderly women are more commonly victimized by people they know, their only family members. This is true of women and girls of all ages. But I am surprised at the rates of violence against elderly men by strangers. I would have thought the numbers would be lower.
What do you think of these findings?
Related articles:
- A Senior Flash Mob for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (crimedime.com)
- Lessons Learned from Abuse of Bus Monitor Karen Klein (crimedime.com)
- Who Are Crime Victims? (crimedime.com)
- TSA Pretends to Lose Interest in Patting Down Your Gran (crimedime.com)
bitcodavid
July 3, 2012
This is just tragic. Animals, children and the elderly – abusers prey upon the helpless. Now you know why I box. If I ever saw anybody abusing some poor old lady, I’d beat them into a coma. I don’t know how you could live with yourself, knowing that you get your kicks from torturing those weaker than you.
But with the elderly, it may be even worse than with animals or children. Because the elderly weren’t always elderly. They were the ones who changed your diapers. The ones who fed you, clothed you and educated you. I just can’t stand it. I’m so angry right now.
bitcodavid
July 3, 2012
Please note: My use of the 2nd person in the above comment was not directed to CrimeDime, but rather to and editorial “you.” I think you got that, but I just wanted to say it.
CrimeDime
July 3, 2012
We knew exactly what you meant.
Thanks for supporting our work, as always!