When a younger person is injured or dies, a jury will often consider years of lost income when awarding a settlement. Elderly people typically don't earn as much. In criminal cases, evidence is often unavailable. Elderly witnesses may not have the ability to testify, or they may not want to. Some fatal injuries in rest homes and nursing homes may occur in the middle of the night, and no one's quite sure what happened.
Documentation is often scarce.
The Mecklenburg district attorney's office recently earned murder convictions on two cases involving elderly men who were beaten and robbed, then suffered heart attacks and died. But there has been no case in recent years involving deadly abuse or neglect of the elderly, says Marsha Goodenow, an assistant district attorney in the homicide unit. When multiple people have access to someone and can inflict injuries, and you have someone who is either dead or unable to speak, that would be difficult. Nationally, some communities have proposed fatality review teams for elderly cases, similar to teams that states including the Carolinas have created for children's deaths. The U.S. Department of Justice recently hosted a forensics conference to talk about elder abuse and neglect.