Improvements in health care and advances in medical science are allowing people to live much longer than just a generation ago. Today in California, 3.3 million people are age 60 or older. These major demographic changes present a significant challenge to law enforcement. Already, elder abuse is perhaps the fastest growing public safety concern in our communities. While overall crime rates in California dropped dramatically during the early 1990s, crimes against the elderly and disabled increased by 20 percent.
Abuse can take the form of physical abuse or neglect, mental abuse, or even financial abuse.
Seniors and the disabled can be targets for abuse not only because of a physical disability but also because they are often socially isolated, and unable or unwilling to report these situations to neighbors, family or law enforcement. In fact, it is often members of the victim s own family perpetrating the abuse, especially in cases of financial abuse. Steps are being taken to increase the reporting of these crimes, in the hope of deterring future crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Last year, the State Legislature moved to crack down on this fast-growing problem. Currently, a claim of abuse may go unreported if it is believed that the victim may be fictionalizing the abuse because of a mental condition, such as schizophrenia or senility.