What is Elder Abuse? Is it Really A Crime?

Often it is a crime. In many cases abusers break the law and can be charged with a criminal offense. People who commit the crime of elder abuse are often related to or responsible for the older man or woman they harm. Victims of elder abuse know their abusers. Most victims of elder abuse depend on the people who hurt them, sometimes for food, shelter, personal care, or companionship.

There are many kinds of elder abuse. Physical abuse includes any kind of physical battery, such as slapping, pushing, kicking, punching, or injuring with an object or weapon. It also includes deliberate exposure to severe weather, inappropriate use of medication and unnecessary physical restraint. Sexual abuse includes any forced sexual activity. All are crimes under Indiana law.

Elder Abuse also includes mental cruelty and psychological abuse. If someone humiliates, insults, frightens, threatens, ignores or treats an older person like a child, this is mental cruelty. Threatening to put an older person in a nursing home can be a form of psychological abuse. Removal of decision making power when the elderly person is still competent to make his/her own decisions is also considered to be psychological abuse. Under some circumstances, psychological abuse and other forms of mental cruelty are crimes under Indiana law.

Neglect is any lack of action required to meet the needs of an elderly person. It includes inadequate provision of food, clothing, shelter, required medication or other kinds of health and personal care, as well as social companionship. Passive Neglect is the unintentional failure to fulfill a caretaking obligation; infliction of distress without conscious or willful intent. Active neglect includes the intentional failure to fulfill caregiving obligations, infliction of physical or emotional stress or injury, abandonment, denial of food, medication, or personal hygiene. Sometimes neglect is the result of criminal recklessness. Other times it is a deliberate failure to provide necessities. In either case, the neglect is a crime under Indiana law.

Elder abuse also includes financial exploitation, or misuse of property by fraud, trickery, duress, or force. If someone close to an older person forces him or her to sell personal property, or steals money, pension checks, or possessions, this is elder abuse. Theft, fraud, forgery, extortion, and the wrongful use of Power of Attorney can also be elder abuse, and are likewise crimes under Indiana law.

Because there are few federal laws relating to these issues, applicable state laws are of paramount importance. Keep in mind that rules and protections may vary from state to state.