Helen Rippier Wheeler, pen136@dslextreme.com
Friday December 11, 2015 - 02:01:00 PM
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Helen for this column, which is #200 in an outstanding series contributed for Planet readers!
Crime is yet another aspect of the problems aging populations are likely to experience… and sometimes to cause. Elder abuse crimes -- that is, crimes against senior citizens or in which elders are victimized -- fall into four main categories: physical abuse, physical neglect by a caregiver, psychological (mental) abuse, and financial (fiduciary) abuse, including theft of such personal items as cash, investments, real property and jewelry belonging to an elder. Recent criminal activity among senior citizens has been attributed to such things as handling the hours of daily loneliness, novelty-seeking, poverty, anxiety over the future, money having become important, financial stress, a lifelong habit, the early stages of dementia, topping up pension benefits, and fear of being put in a retirement home.
In most nations, young men still commit a disproportionate share of crimes. Bloomberg Business attributes increased criminal activity among senior citizens to loneliness and poverty. But as year 2015 ends, rates of crimes committed by senior citizens are rising in Britain and other European and Asian nations, while the U.S. appears to have escaped the trend.
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