Gender Issues in Elder Abuse

This volume analyzes the ways in which gender is central to the occurence, detection and prevention of elder abuse. The authors demonstrate by their own research the gendered nature of elder abuse: most of the very elderly victims are women; women abuse women both in domestic and in institutional settings; significant number of older women are abused by sons; significant numbers of older men are abused by their female partners and by daughters; and abuse by non-relatives and non-carers of both sexes occurs. It considers why much of the research on elder abuse has failed to engage with these findings. The authors call for a reframing of the issue of elder abuse, specifically in professional guidelines for dealing with abuse should include gender awareness. They argue for elder abuse to be considered as a human rights issue rather than a private problem.