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Focus Group on Crime Victimization of Older Persons: Recommendations to the Office of Justice Programs

NCJ Number
175035
Date Published
1998
Length
39 pages
Annotation
Recommendations by the Focus Group on Crime Victimization of Older Persons, established by the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs, form the core elements of an overall strategy for the Office of Justice Programs to undertake in improving its support for State, local, and tribal efforts to address the criminal victimization of the elderly.
Abstract
Focus group participants represented national, State, and local experts in the areas of aging, elder victimization, and criminal justice. For the purposes of this report, "elder victimization" is defined to include the broad categories of elder abuse, crime against older persons, and fraud against older persons. After defining "elder victimization," the first section of the report provides an overview of elder victimization. This section provides the background information necessary for understanding the problems with the current response of the criminal justice system to elder victimization as identified by the Focus Group as well as the recommendations presented in the body of the report. Section II summarizes the Focus Group discussion in identifying the issues that must be addressed in the following areas: society's response to elder victimization, the perceptions and responses of older persons to crime victimization, and the response of the criminal justice system. Section III provides the Focus Group recommendations to the Justice Department. These recommendations are reported under the categories of technical assistance, research, professional development and training, prevention through public education and awareness, and recommendations for specific professional groups. The Focus Group determined that leadership by the Justice Department is needed to make elder victimization a priority for the criminal justice system, to encourage collaborative efforts across disciplines, to support and develop increased technical assistance and training of a variety of professionals, fund research, and support prevention efforts through public education and community-awareness initiatives. Appended Focus Group participant list and promising programs identified by the Focus Group