Fluent Essays

Please copy the question before answering it (Ques-Ans)Q1- Explain (not list or write one-phrase or one sentence responses but actually explain) FIVE factors that make older women more vulnerable to abuse and neglect.1.2.3.4.5.Q2- Describe FIVE (without repetition) interdisciplinary approaches/interventions to stop and prevent the abuse/neglect of older women. The more well-explained your responses, the more credit you will receive.1.2.3.4.5.https://youtu.be/Q6nehn5Be5AWatch the video and read the attached file to help answer qie a_crime_at_any_age__intimate_partner_abuse_in_later_life.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview A Crime at Any Age: Intimate Partner Abuse in Later Life Taylor Jillian Altman* Intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a problem that affects millions of women across the United States every year. Traditionally, strategies designed to help victims and reduce IPA have tended to focus on women of childbearing age. However, older women who experience abuse at the hands of male partners are often left out of the conversation. Usually grouped with family violence (which may involve abuse by adult children or other caregivers), elder IPA has received short shrift in the social science and legal literature. This Note explores in depth the unique problem of IPA among older women, which is often a continuation of the cycle of abuse begun much earlier in the couples’ lives, and proposes solutions that include restorative justice, elder-ready domestic violence shelters, and expanded protection under California’s Welfare and Institutions Code. Introduction .......................................................................................... 1544 I. Elder Abuse by Family Members ...................................................... 1546 A. The Aging Population ........................................................ 1546 B. Why Elders are Vulnerable to Abuse................................. 1546 C. Why Abusers Abuse .......................................................... 1549 II. Elder Intimate Partner Abuse ........................................................... 1550 A. The Scope of Elder IPA ..................................................... 1550 B. Barriers to Reporting Abuse .............................................. 1550 C. The Cycle of Power and Control in Later Life .................. 1551 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15779/Z38TB0XV4B Copyright © 2017 California Law Review, Inc. California Law Review, Inc. (CLR) is a California nonprofit corporation. CLR and the authors are solely responsible for the content of their publications. * Taylor Jillian Altman graduated from Berkeley Law School in 2016 with a J.D. and a Certificate in Public Interest and Social Justice. During law school, she served as a judicial extern to Chief Judge Gloria Navarro of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, and interned at the East Bay Community Law Center’s Consumer Justice and Health & Welfare Clinics. She is currently an associate at Keesal, Young & Logan in San Francisco, where her practice focuses on a broad range of civil litigation matters in securities, employment, and maritime law. She also writes and publishes poetry and creative non-fiction. 1543 1544 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 105:1543 III. Legal Remedies for Elder Intimate Partner Abuse ......................... 1553 A. Elder Abuse Remedies ....................................................... 1553 B. Domestic Violence Remedies ............................................ 1555 1. Criminal and Civil Remedies ....................................... 1555 2. Collaborative Justice Alternatives ............................... 1557 C. Effectiveness for the Older Population .............................. 1558 1. The Inadequacy of Elder Abuse Remedies .................. 1559 2. The Inadequacy of Domestic Violence Remedies ....... 1561 D. Breaking the Cycle: Interdisciplinary Approaches ............ 1562 1. A Hybrid Domestic Violence/Elder Abuse ProblemSolving Court ............................................................... 1562 2. Easier Access to Elder Abuse Restraining Orders ....... 1563 3. Elder-Ready Shelters and “Aging in Place” ................ 1564 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 1565 INTRODUCTION Eighty-two-year-old Helen has begun showing signs of dementia. She lives with Robert, her husband of nearly fifty-five years, who is now her caretaker. Helen and Robert have always been a loving couple, but lately Helen has noticed Robert getting irritated when she can’t remember a word or if she accidentally puts too much detergent in the washing machine. Sometimes he yells at her; other times he slaps her or twists her arm. Their daughter Debbie was visiting last week and noticed Helen rubbing her shoulder. When Debbie asked what happened, Helen said, “Oh, it’s just my old bursitis acting up again.”1 Then there is sixty-year-old Fatima and her husband Shakur, who is sixtyfour. Their marriage has never been easy, but they have managed to stay together for more than thirty years. When they were younger, Shakur physically abused Fatima, causing her to leave with the children at different points in time and live with relatives or in a shelter. Even though he doesn’t hit her anymore, he now insults her, making derogatory comments about her “old” appearance. Fatima tries hard not to arouse his anger, but walking on eggshells has left her exhausted and depressed. On the surface, Helen and Fatima might seem different. Helen is eightytwo, white, and Protestant; Fatima is sixty, South Asian, and Muslim. However, the two women have something significant in common: both are victims of intimate partner abuse (IPA)2 in later life. 1. The stories in the Introduction are invented narratives based on those in Bonnie Brandl, Power and Control: Understanding Domestic Abuse in Later Life, 24 GENERATIONS: J. AM. SOC’Y ON AGING 39, 39 (2000). 2. I have chosen to use the term “intimate partner abuse,” or IPA, rather than the more common term “intimate partner violence,” or IPV, because “abuse” suggests a broader range of experiences and behaviors. Further, although this Note and the sources I rely on focus on female abuse at the hands of 2017] A CRIME AT ANY AGE 1545 Until the late twentieth century, domestic abuse was underreported3 and largely absent from public conversation; domestic abuse in later life was even further underreported and undiscussed. “It was not until the ‘discovery’ of elder abuse in the late 1970s that attention began being paid to older persons who were the victims of domestic violence.”4 But even then, law and social science scholars tended to compare later-life domestic violence (DV) to child abuse rather than IPA, casting older battered women as “child-like victim[s] of family violence”5 because of their perceived weakness and dependency. More recently, with the rapid aging of the American population and the greater availability of data on elder IPA, scholars have begun to shift their perspectives. Rather than likening IPA to child abuse or grouping it with other kinds of elder abuse, they have recognized it as its own unique subject.6 Further, they have attributed this abuse to the cycle of power and control rather than simply to caregiver stress.7 Accordingly, they have looked toward remedies that aim to break this cycle, many of which were originally designed for younger battered women. The goal of this Note is to analyze the application of those remedies to older women, evaluate their success (or lack thereof), and propose new solutions. First, however, this Note will provide a general background on elder abuse by family members, including adult children and spouses/intimate partners. The Note will give an overview of the size and growth of the older American population; why elders are vulnerable to abuse; the various forms of abuse, ranging from physical abuse to financial abuse to abandonment and neglect; and the complex family relationships from which the abuse originates. Second, the Note will present a layered explanation of elder IPA. It will discuss the differences between elder abuse and IPA, the known scope of elder IPA, and the reasons why older women may remain in abusive relationships. male abusers, I recognize that abuse of males by females is a real (and not uncommon) problem, and that same-sex abuse is also a reality. 3. See Therese A. Clarke, Why Won’t Someone Help Me?: The Unspeakable Epidemic of Domestic Violence: An Annotated Bibliography, 23 N. ILL. U. L. REV. 529, 529 (2003). 4. Linda Vinton, Abused Older Women: Battered Women or Abused Elders?, 3 J. WOMEN & AGING 5, 6 (1991). 5. Id. The terms “elder abuse,” “family violence,” “domestic violence,” and “elder intimate partner abuse” appear throughout this Note. “Elder abuse” is harm or serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult by a caregiver or other person. Administration on Aging (AoA): What is Elder Abuse?, U.S. DEP’T HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. ADMIN. FOR CMTY. LIVING, OF http://www.aoa.gov/AoA_programs/elder_rights/EA_prevention/whatisEA.aspx [https://perma.cc/59AG-DBTV]. I use the broad term “family violence” to refer to the various types of violence that may occur within the family, including child abuse and elder abuse. “Domestic violence” is “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.” Domestic Violence, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, https://www.justice.gov/ovw/domestic-violence [https://perma.cc/Y8DB-ACCY]. Similarly, I define “elder intimate partner abuse” as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner who is an elder. 6. See, e.g., Brandl, supra note 1, at 40–41. 7. See id. 1546 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 105:1543 Third, the bulk of the Note will examine existing legal remedies for elder abuse and DV in California that, when applied to the problem of elder IPA, have not worked well enough or at all. The Note will conclude with interdisciplinary strategies, such as a problem-solving court and easier access to more protective restraining orders, for breaking the cycle of power and control in later life. I. ELDER ABUSE BY FAMILY MEMBERS A. The Aging Population It is well known that the American population is aging. In 2013, the older population of the United States (ages sixty-five and older) numbered 44.7 million.8 Currently, about one in every seven people, or 14.1 percent of the U.S. population, is an older American.9 Those who reach sixty-five are now living longer than ever, with an average life expectancy of an additional 19.3 years.10 People eighty-five and older constitute the fastest-growing segment of the population and are disproportionately female.11 According to the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life, “[t]hese demographic trends have significant implications for victimization, safety, suffering, health, and wellbeing of tens of millions of older Americans”12—especially women. B. Why Elders are Vulnerable to Abuse The broad term “elder abuse” refers to “any knowing, intentional, or negligent act by a caregiver or any other person that causes harm or a serious risk of harm to a vulnerable adult.”13 Elder abuse comes in many forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse, in addition to neglect and abandonment,14 and includes abuse by spouses and intimate partners. Abusers tend to use different types of abuse in combination—for example, neglect and financial abuse (e.g., when an adult child fails to care for an older parent and instead steals the money that the parent had put aside for medical 8. Administration on Aging (AoA): The Older Population, U.S. DEP’T OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. ADMIN. FOR CMTY. LIVING, http://www.aoa.acl.gov/Aging_Statistics/Profile/2014/3.aspx [https://perma.cc/B77H-5GGV] (The most current data is from 2013.). 9. Id. 10. Id. 11. NAT’L CLEARINGHOUSE ON ABUSE IN LATER LIFE, http://www.ncall.us [https://perma.cc/F3D6-QXSY]; A Profile of Older Americans: 2014, U.S. DEP’T OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. ADMIN. FOR CMTY. LIVING, https://www.acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging\%20and\%20Disability\%20in\%20America/2014Profile.pdf [https://perma.cc/7VAX-ZX6C] (“The 85+ population is projected to triple from 6 million in 2013 to 14.6 million in 2040.”). 12. NAT’L CLEARINGHOUSE ON ABUSE IN LATER LIFE, supra note 11. 13. What is Elder Abuse?, supra note 5. 14. Bonnie Brandl & Tess Meuer, Domestic Abuse in Later Life, 8 ELDER L.J. 297, 300–01 (2000). 2017] A CRIME AT ANY AGE 1547 care).15 Recent research indicates that about one in ten older adults who live at home experiences elder abuse every year.16 Older people are vulnerable to abuse for a variety of reasons.17 First, they may be physically weakened by ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or a general loss of muscle tone and physical ability due to age. Lack of mobility, isolation, and dependence on caregivers can contribute to loneliness and depression in older people18 and make them less able to defend themselves or seek help in an abusive situation. Second, their cognitive abilities may be diminished. The simplest explanation for cognitive decline in older people is dementia, “a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life.”19 Sixty to 80 percent of all cases of dementia are attributable to Alzheimer’s disease.20 Brain changes during Alzheimer’s cause memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment and decision making, and difficulty carrying on a conversation.21 Further, recent neurological research suggests that older people may suffer a general cognitive decline as they age. Structural changes in the brain can cause memory loss and may make elders more credulous and trusting.22 There is also evidence that people begin to display a positive cognitive bias as they grow older; 15. NAT’L CLEARINGHOUSE ON ABUSE IN LATER LIFE, AN OVERVIEW OF ELDER ABUSE: A GROWING PROBLEM (2013), http://www.ncall.us/sites/ncall.us/files/resources/1. Overview.pdf [https://perma.cc/AX5M-K3RH]. 16. Id. 17. In the following paragraphs, I do not mean to suggest that all older people suffer from physical and cognitive deterioration, or experience such deterioration in the same way. Even within age cohorts, the differences in ability are sometimes marked; for example, one seventy-year-old woman might be able to solve crossword puzzles and hike three miles a day, while another may be unable to express herself clearly or walk without assistance. 18. See, e.g., Conor Ó Luanaigh & Brian A. Lawlor, Loneliness and the Health of Older People, 23 INT’L J. GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY 1213, 1214 (2008); K.B. Adams et al., Loneliness and Depression in Independent Living Retirement Communities: Risk and Resilience Factors, 8 AGING & MENTAL HEALTH 475, 481–83 (2004). ASS’N, 19. What is Alzheimer’s?, ALZHEIMER’S http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp#basics [https://perma.cc/7YVNA488]; see also David N. Kirkman, Lawyers and Elderly Victims of Telephone Fraud, 7 N.C. ST. B.J. 24, 28 (2002) (“[G]eriatrician Dr. Margaret Noel . . . says that all of us experience cognitive decline as we grow older but we are also more susceptible to age related dementing illness that is very subtle in its onset. Roughly half of the population over 85 is estimated to have cognitive loss severe enough to impair their daily function, including their ‘better judgment.’”); Henriette van Praag et al., Exercise Enhances Learning and Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Aged Mice, 25 J. NEUROSCIENCE 8680, 8680 (2005) (“Aging causes changes in the hippocampus that may lead to cognitive decline in older adults.”). 20. What is Alzheimer’s?, supra note 19. 21. See 10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s, ALZHEIMER’S ASS’N, http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp [https://perma.cc/RJ7L-7LES]. 22. See, e.g., Elizabeth Castle et al., Neural and Behavioral Bases of Age Differences in Perceptions of Trust, 109 PROC. NAT’L ACAD. SCI. 20848, 20851 (2012) (finding that adults’ “gut” reactions to facial untrustworthiness appear to diminish with age); Erik Asp et al., A Neuropsychological Test of Belief and Doubt: Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Increases Credulity for Misleading Advertising, 6 FRONTIERS NEUROSCIENCE 1, 7–9 (2012). 1548 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 105:1543 that is, they are more able to remember and express positive emotions.23 While a positive focus can protect the elder from feelings of sadness and hopelessness, it can also make her less likely to see beyond an abuser’s superficial charm.24 Other risk factors for abuse in later life include a history of abuse at the hands of one’s spouse or partner; the substance abuse and/or psychological problems of abusive family members who act as caregivers; and an abusive family member who isolates the elder from her community of peers.25 For some older women, community violence is also a risk factor for abuse. According to a 2009 study of older women at an inner-city hospital, “[violence] in the home was more likely to occur when there was violence in their neighborhood and when the environment was not conducive to the older woman in the family being respected.”26 Finally, because of a lack of training, professionals working with elders may miss the signs of elder abuse, and elders themselves (particularly women) often hesitate to report abuse for fear of getting a family member in trouble27 or losing the family member’s caregiving services. Moreover, when they actually do report abuse, particularly financial abuse, older people tend to make poor witnesses because of memory problems and other cognitive issues that make it difficult to describe to the police exactly how and when they were abused.28 23. See, e.g., Susan Turk Charles et al., Aging and Emotional Memory: The Forgettable Nature of Negative Images for Older Adults, 132 J. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOL. 310, 310 (2003) (“The relative number of negative images compared with positive and neutral images recalled decreased with each successively older age group.”); Mara Mather et al., Amygdala Responses to Emotionally Valenced Stimuli in Older and Younger Adults, 15 PSYCHOL. SCI. 259, 259 (2004) (“As they age, adults experience less negative emotion, come to pay less attention to negative than to positive emotional stimuli, and become less likely to remember negative than positive emotional materials.”). 24. Not all elders in abusive situations are overly trusting, however. In some cases, an elder will see beyond the abuser’s superficial charm, but the problem is that she is unwilling to communicate her distrust to others for fear that they will not believe her. See Brandl & Meuer, supra note 14, at 297 (describing a hypothetical situation involving a seventy-eight-year-old woman whose abusive alcoholic son is “charming and attentive” in the presence of neighbors). CTR. ON ELDER ABUSE, 25. Frequently Asked Questions, NAT’L https://ncea.acl.gov/faq/index.html [https://perma.cc/4TF9-3DLY]. 26. Anuradha Paranjape et al., When Older African American Women Are Affected by Violence in the Home: A Qualitative Investigation of Risk and Protective Factors, 15 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 977, 983–84 (2009). 27. Research: Statistics/Data, NAT’L CTR. ON ELDER ABUSE, https://ncea.acl.gov/whatwedo/research/statistics.html [https://perma.cc/5XAJ-HEM5]; see also Terry Fulmer et al., Elder Mistreatment in Women, 33 J. OBSTETRIC, GYNECOLOGIC, & NEONATAL NURSING 657, 658 (2004) (“Although the rate of intimate partner violence is much lower for older women than younger, older women are less likely than younger women to report their victimization to the police. . . . Older women who are victims of intimate partner violence may not be identified by social workers, police, health care workers, or Adult Protective Service (APS) agencies. There is evidence that APS agencies and domestic violence researchers focus mainly on women who are 18 to 45 years old[.]”). 28. See Scams and Safety: Common Fraud Schemes: Fraud Against Seniors, FBI, http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/seniors [https://perma.cc/7N5B-HVSC]. 2017] A CRIME AT ANY AGE 1549 C. W ... Purchase answer to see full attachment