In which ways can elder abuse legislation infringe on individual rights and self-determination? How can legislation effect

Chapter

17 Other Forms of

Victimization

Case Example

Doctor’s Testimony Lead to Wrongful Conviction

• Coroner’s review of 45

cases of testimony on

“shaken baby syndrome”

leading to conviction

• Review determined that

Smith made questionable

conclusions of foul play in

20 cases, 13 of which

resulted in criminal

convictions © Ben Stansall/ AFP/ Getty Images.

Robbery and Theft

• Robbery

– Taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force, or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear

• Larceny (or theft)

– Taking of a person’s property without the permission of the property owner or possessor of that property, but does not involve threat

Burglary

• The uninvited and illegal entry into a person’s

property, cargo container, or any vehicle or

vessel

• Four types

– Completed burglary

– Forcible entry

– Unlawful entry without force

– Attempted forcible entry

• Frequently a secondary crime or by-product of

the intention to commit another crime (typically

more serious)

Home Invasion

• Forced entry into a home for the purposes

of robbery, rape, or other criminal activity

– Frequently involve highly violent activities

• Florida 1993: Home invasion robbery a

first-degree felony even when no weapon

is used

• Connecticut 2008: Home invasion robbery

to a first-degree offense

Carjacking

• 1992: Federal statute came into effect that

criminalized carjacking in the United States

• 40% increase per year between 1987 and

1992—and in 2003 it was estimated to average

49,000 per year

• Louisiana 1998: “Shoot the Carjacker” law,

extended the defense of habitation law, makes

justifiable a homicide

Workplace Violence

• Violence can occur in any workplace and

among any type of worker

– Risk for fatal violence is greater for workers in

sales, protective services, and transportation

– Risk for nonfatal violence resulting in days

away from work is greatest for healthcare and

social assistance workers

• Total of 4,836 fatal work injuries in 2015

(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Risk Management in the Workplace

• Policies regarding violence, threats, misconduct, weapons, intimate partner violence, and bomb threats

• A system for reporting, investigating, assessing, and managing all threats, misconduct, and inappropriate behavior

• Access controls

• A security plan and procedures

• Preemployment screening procedures

• A drug-free workplace program

• An employee assistance program

• Critical incident response procedures

• Training of all employees in their roles in each of the above

Victims of Natural Disasters

• Each disaster is unique even though

research on disasters shows there are

common effects across disaster types

• Several factors may determine a given

disaster’s effects on survivors, such as:

– Continuing aftershocks following an earthquake

– Life threat

– Loss of employment or income

– Cultural beliefs

Victims of Terrorism

• Affects large percentage of population

• People who lived or worked near Ground Zero,

witnessed the attack, knew a victim, or knew a

recovery worker revealed symptoms including:

– Somatic responses (stomach pain, back pain,

headaches, dizziness, cardiac)

– Depressive symptoms

– Anxiety symptoms (concentration difficulties and

arousal)

Corporate Victimization

• White-collar crime defined as “crime committed

by a person of respectability and high social

status in the course of their occupation”

– 2009: Bernie Madoff was sentenced to a jail term of

150 years

• Organizations are also the victims of corporate

crime

– 2017: Martin Shkreli found guilty on multiple criminal

securities fraud charges

Victims of Corporate Crime

Wrongful Convictions

Racial Profiling and

Disproportionate Penalties

• Racial profiling

– Any action undertaken for reasons of safety, security,

or public protection that relies on stereotypes about

race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of

origin (or a combination of these) rather than on

reasonable suspicion to single out an individual for

greater scrutiny or different treatment

• Overrepresentation in criminal justice system

• Fuels distrust and alienation

Chapter 14

Hate Crimes

Case Example

Hate Crime

• 19- and 20-year-old

sentenced to 9 years for

the beating death of Luis

Ramirez

• Threatening, racial slurs

earlier

• Kicked in head until he

died

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Definitions

• Hate crime: Criminal conduct motivated in

whole or in part by a preformed negative

opinion or attitude toward a group based

on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual

orientation, or disability

• Hate speech: Words that are used as

weapons to ambush, terrorize, wound,

humiliate, and degrade

Victims of Hate Crime—United States

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Hate Crime Legislation in the

United States • 1920s–1940s: Attempts made to enact statutes

to deter lynching of African Americans

• 1950s: Seven U.S. states adopted group libel statutes that addressed hate speech

• 1980s–1990s: Most U.S. states moved to criminalize actions motivated by hate

• Federal legislation: 1990: Hate Crime Statistics Act 1994: Hate Crime Sentencing Act 2000: Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Hate Crime Legislation in Canada

• Three provisions

– Advocating genocide

– Public incitement of hatred through

communication of statements in public

– Hate propaganda material intended for

distribution can be seized

Typology of Hate Crimes

• Race

• Religion

• Disability

• Gender

• Sexual Orientation

• Political

Typology of Offender Motivation

Suicide Bombing as Hate Crime

• Targeted use of self-destructing human beings

against civilian populations to effect political

change

• Primary targets are not those killed in the attack

but those who witness it

• Random attacks based on hatred toward a

particular group of people

• Outcomes in terms of fear are highly successful

Impact of Hate Crimes on Victims

• Try to be less visible and relocate to attempt to

reduce the possibility of further attacks

• Higher intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and anger

than victims whose assaults were not hate

based

• The severity of the assaults is significantly

higher than that of other assaults, and people

are more likely to require hospitalization

• Not only individuals but also communities

Chapter 13 Homicide:

Victims, Their

Families, and

the Community

Case Example Canadian Air Force Officer Pleads Guilty to Murder

• Brutal assault and murder

of two women

• Kept meticulous records

and videotapes of his 2-

year rampage

• Began with home break-

ins to steal girls’ and

women’s underwear for

his sexual arousal and

culminated in the murders

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Scope of the Problem

• Earliest classification system in United States is UCR

• Program was the first system to classify homicide in the United States

• Steadily decreased in the 1990s, began increasing again in the 2000s – 13,594 persons murdered in 2014 and 15,192 in

2015, representing an 11.8% increase across those 2 years (FBI, 2017)

• Murder rate considerably lower in Canada than in United States

Number of Murders by Weapon

Used

Data from: FBI Uniform Crime Report – Crime in the United States. 1977, 1981, 1987, 1989, 2003, 2007. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.

Legal Responses to Murder

• All legal codes classify murder as a major

crime

– Where the element of intent exists and there

are no extenuating circumstances, the penalty

may be death or life imprisonment

• Penalties for homicide: Serve longer prison

terms; between 1986 and 2003 length of

stay increased 116%

Legal Responses to Murder

• Recidivism: 67% rearrested; 50%

reincarcerated

– Imperative to examine recidivism patterns to

assess to what extent predictors for recidivism

are similar to those for other violent offenders

• Civil litigation, two areas of law can be

used:

– Denial of equal protection

– Failure to act

Classification of Homicides

• Single homicide (e.g., Ennis Cosby)

• Double homicide (e.g., Half & Susanne

Zantop)

• Triple homicide (e.g., Newark students)

• Mass murder: classic and family

• Spree murder (e.g., Howard Unruh)

• Serial murder (two or more events)

Homicide Victimization Theories

• Social interactionism

– Lifestyle/routine activities theories

– Victim risk

• Cultural theories

– Social learning theories: Modeling behavior

– Violent media: Appears to increase

aggression in youth

Demographic Correlates and

Homicide Offending

• Race, ethnic origin, gender, social class,

age, and victim/offender relationship

• Shows consistent pattern of variation in

terms of gender, age, victim/offender

relationship

• Primarily a male crime

• Race combined with social class has

strong correlation to homicide

Homicide Typologies

• Organized and disorganized offenders: A

typology of crime scene dynamics

– Organized offenders: Planning of the crime,

good verbal skills, high degree of intelligence

– Disorganized offenders: Actions devoid of

normal logic, have poor self-image,

underachievers

Homicide Typologies

• Underclass homicide typology

– Hundreds of thousands of homicide offenders who do not make headlines, commit the crime, serve the time, etc.

• Toward a new homicide typology

– Homicide precipitated by argument et al.

– Homicide during the commission of a felony

– Domestic violence–related homicide

– Homicide charge following an accident

Issues for Covictims

• Forensic issues

– Death notification

– Funeral activities

– Police investigation

– Medical examiner’s office

– Media

Response of Covictims

– Return to work or school

– Grief

– Guilt and blame

– Stigma

– Fears and phobias

– Mental health effects

Chapter 12

Elder Abuse

Victims

Case Example

Mickey Rooney Testifies

“I didn’t want to tell anybody.

I couldn’t muster the

courage and you have to

have courage. . . . I needed

help and I knew I needed it.

Even when I tried to speak

up, I was told to shut up and

be quiet” © Jim Young/Thomson Reuters.

WHO Definition

• “Elder abuse is a single or repeated act, or

lack of appropriate action, occurring within

any relationship where there is an

expectation of trust, which causes harm or

distress to an older person. It can be of

various forms: physical,

psychological/emotional, sexual, financial,

or simply reflect intentional or unintentional

neglect.”

Scope of the Problem

• The WHO estimates that the rate of elder abuse

across Canada, the Netherlands, the United

States, Finland, and Great Britain is between 4%

and 6%

• A recently released U.S. nationally

representative sample found that 5.1% of adults

over the age of 60 reported emotional

mistreatment, 5.2% reported financial abuse,

1.6% reported physical mistreatment, and 0.6%

reported sexual mistreatment in the past year

Elder Abuse Legislation

• 1987: The federal Older Americans Act was amended – Provides definitions of elder abuse and direct the use of

federal funds

• 2010: The Elder Justice Act – Reports on activities, accomplishments, and challenges

– Makes recommendations to congressional committees

– Provides states with resources to prevent elder abuse, increase prosecution of those who mistreat the elderly, and provide victim assistance

• All U.S. states have enacted legislation authorizing the use of adult protective services (APS) in cases of elder abuse

Types of Elder Abuse

• Physical abuse

• Neglect

• Sexual abuse

• Psychological abuse

• Financial abuse

Categories of Abusive Situations

• Spousal violence as elder abuse

• Abuse by adult children and relatives

• Institutionally based abuse

• Societal neglect

• Sexual assault

Spousal Violence as Elder Abuse

• 58% of perpetrators of elder sexual abuse were

intimate partners

• Older women were twice as likely as older men

to be killed by their spouses

• Many became wives and mothers in the pre-

feminist era

• Many older women have never lived alone

• Many have never learned independent skills at

managing finances, negotiating contracts (such

as leases), or interacting with lawyers

Abuse by Adult Children

• Role reversal if living with adult children, the

parent becomes the dependent

• Lack of autonomy of elderly person can make it

very difficult to end the abuse

• Type 1: Adult child is dependent on victim for

financial assistance, housing, and other

supports

• Type 2: Result of caregiver stress caused by the

demands of caring for an individual who may

suffer from dementia or other illnesses

Institutional Abuse

• Older adults who are abused while they are

residents of long-term-care facilities

• Most vulnerable elderly individuals

• 36% of nurses and nurse’s aides reported

having seen at least one incident of physical

abuse perpetrated by a staff member

• 10% of staff members admitted to having

committed physical abuse, and 40% admitted to

psychological abuse

Societal Neglect

• Neglectful practices

• Inadequate resources

• Poor public policies

Sexual Assault

• Typologies of sexual offenders against the

elderly – Opportunistic rapists

– Pervasive anger rapists

– Sexual-type rapists • Sexual sadistic rapists

• Sexual nonsadistic rapists

– Vindictive-type rapists

Factors Associated with Risk of

Abuse

Interventions

• Prevention programs

– Education

• Adult protection programs

– Mandatory reporting, assessment, intervention

• Domestic violence programs

– Legal advocacy, short-term emergency housing, long-term-care planning and possible admission,

and law enforcement training