Abuse is legally defined. The law has exact definitions and boundaries about what is considered abuse. However in social settings, abuse is necessarily a relative term. But ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Older adult law in California is unique in that if the government decides that a crime has been committed against someone who is 65 years and older--whether that older adult wants to or not--the government will prosecute. Elder abuse is not different from any other type of abuse. In some instances the victim might not understand the act of abuse, in most cases the abuser—the perpetrator—is a relative of the victim, and in some circumstances the victim does not want the abuse to be exposed. What is different in elder abuse is that the victim is an older adult.
Although all elder abuse victims are vulnerable, most are just ashamed that it happened to them and that a family member whom they trusted has so wronged them. Even with the belief across most cultures that older adults, especially mothers, should be honored--which Asian cultures calls filial piety--the practice is rapidly being abandoned and becoming...old fashioned.
The problem is that we have very little information about elder abuse in general and ethnic minorities specifically. The lack of information is primarily because lawyers are weary of sharing information about their clients, or allowing their clients to be researched since any evidence that is obtained can be subpoenaed by the defense. Also some of these incidents have a long history within the family.
In the late 1970s Suzanne Steinmetz reported that half of abused children grow up to abuse their elderly parents. There seems to be a social learning component to elder abuse. If the situation at home promotes certain behaviors as acceptable then those behaviors will be reflected back at the aging parents. For lawyers, identifying that abused children are repeating learned behavior makes it that much harder to prosecute the case.
In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that a majority of older adults have some early stage dementia, which makes them vulnerable and in some cases unable to cope with aggressive and insistent demands. How a court deals with the victims’ evidence in such cases is predictable which is why researchers and lawyers rarely collaborate.
Cultural differences bring an extra layer of consideration. Some ethnic groups, view families as a unit rather than as individuals and therefore deal with "common property" as such. There are also cultural norms in dealing with erratic behavior in families. The legal system does not acknowledge that there are different cultural impressions of what is defined as abuse. Different agencies keep different data, and reporting of abuse is not uniform across ethnicities.
Elder abuse is a growing torment in our society. It is so widespread that we fail to notice it because we ascribe such behavior to culture or, at least, to family idiosyncrasies. We also ascribe behavior as cultural, but it is likely to be a learned behavior rather than culture. There is no culture that allows for the derogation of our elders. And there is an urgency to elder abuse cases. The victims have a high--natural in most cases--mortality.
© USA Copyrighted 2013 Mario D. Garrett
Older adult law in California is unique in that if the government decides that a crime has been committed against someone who is 65 years and older--whether that older adult wants to or not--the government will prosecute. Elder abuse is not different from any other type of abuse. In some instances the victim might not understand the act of abuse, in most cases the abuser—the perpetrator—is a relative of the victim, and in some circumstances the victim does not want the abuse to be exposed. What is different in elder abuse is that the victim is an older adult.
Although all elder abuse victims are vulnerable, most are just ashamed that it happened to them and that a family member whom they trusted has so wronged them. Even with the belief across most cultures that older adults, especially mothers, should be honored--which Asian cultures calls filial piety--the practice is rapidly being abandoned and becoming...old fashioned.
The problem is that we have very little information about elder abuse in general and ethnic minorities specifically. The lack of information is primarily because lawyers are weary of sharing information about their clients, or allowing their clients to be researched since any evidence that is obtained can be subpoenaed by the defense. Also some of these incidents have a long history within the family.
In the late 1970s Suzanne Steinmetz reported that half of abused children grow up to abuse their elderly parents. There seems to be a social learning component to elder abuse. If the situation at home promotes certain behaviors as acceptable then those behaviors will be reflected back at the aging parents. For lawyers, identifying that abused children are repeating learned behavior makes it that much harder to prosecute the case.
In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that a majority of older adults have some early stage dementia, which makes them vulnerable and in some cases unable to cope with aggressive and insistent demands. How a court deals with the victims’ evidence in such cases is predictable which is why researchers and lawyers rarely collaborate.
Cultural differences bring an extra layer of consideration. Some ethnic groups, view families as a unit rather than as individuals and therefore deal with "common property" as such. There are also cultural norms in dealing with erratic behavior in families. The legal system does not acknowledge that there are different cultural impressions of what is defined as abuse. Different agencies keep different data, and reporting of abuse is not uniform across ethnicities.
Elder abuse is a growing torment in our society. It is so widespread that we fail to notice it because we ascribe such behavior to culture or, at least, to family idiosyncrasies. We also ascribe behavior as cultural, but it is likely to be a learned behavior rather than culture. There is no culture that allows for the derogation of our elders. And there is an urgency to elder abuse cases. The victims have a high--natural in most cases--mortality.
© USA Copyrighted 2013 Mario D. Garrett
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