Elder Abuse

  • Rosalie S. Wolf
Chapter
Part of the The Plenum Series in Crime and Justice book series (PSIC)

Abstract

With the passage of time, the concept of elder abuse has undergone various transformations. Initially, abuse and neglect of older adults was viewed in the context of protective services; next, framed as an issue of aging; then, family violence; and, most recently, crime. The multiple terms used to describe the person responsible for the violent act, “caregiver,” “abuser,” “perpetrator,” and “offender,” illustrate the different perspectives. As it turns out, each of the interpretations is more closely associated with one form of elder mistreatment than another (e.g., protective services with neglect) rather than representing an evolutionary process in the definition of the issue. Each provides a framework for intervention. The purpose of this chapter is to present information about perpetrators of elder mistreatment and approaches to intervention. (The word “perpetrator” is used to represent the person who is carrying out the abusive or neglectful action.)

Keywords

Domestic Violence Criminal Justice System Adult Child Family Caregiver Family Violence 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1999

Authors and Affiliations

  • Rosalie S. Wolf
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute on AgingUMass Memorial Health CareWorcesterUSA

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