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Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?

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Listed:
  • Hannah Bows
  • Paige Bromley
  • Sandra Walklate

Abstract

This article reports data from interviews with 66 professionals working across safeguarding, health, criminal justice and specialist domestic abuse services exploring their views about older victims’ experiences of domestic abuse. The findings reveal that older victims, despite embodying many of the criteria of Christie’s ideal victim, are not ideal enough as they fail to conform to the stereotype of the young, female victim of intimate-partner abuse. Similarly, their perpetrators, whether older partners or younger sons/other family members, fall short of the necessary criteria to be seen as legitimate offenders—they are not quite ideal—meaning domestic abuse against older adults is frequently repackaged as a health issue, with significant implications for professional practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Hannah Bows & Paige Bromley & Sandra Walklate, 2024. "Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 64(3), pages 620-637.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:crimin:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:620-637.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/bjc/azad057
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marguerite DeLiema & Jeanine Yonashiro-Cho & Zach D Gassoumis & Yongjie Yon & Ken J Conrad, 2018. "Using Latent Class Analysis to Identify Profiles of Elder Abuse Perpetrators," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(5), pages 49-58.
    2. Sarah R Meyer & Molly E Lasater & Claudia García-Moreno, 2020. "Violence against older women: A systematic review of qualitative literature," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-43, September.
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