Elder and Child Abuse

Abstract

This article reviews the meaning and uses of elder and child abuse concepts and percepts in the reporting of events and research. The review examines the apparent parallels in the conceptions and perceptions from the earliest literature to the present. The child victim was implicitly perceived as a helpless, dependent creature, and only young to middle-aged adults were classified as perpetrators. When elder abuse was “discovered” in the middle to late 1970s, the elders were also perceived as helpless and dependent victims and never labeled as offenders. The stereotypical nature of the concepts and the labeling of the victims has hampered the reporting of the maltreatment and impaired the accuracy of the research. The development of more accurate and complete knowledge about family violence will be forthcoming when victim and offender stereotypes are discarded and when more intensive research in the multifaceted dynamics of family structure and interaction eliminates past and present biases.