Understanding Elder Abuse: New Directions for Developing Theories of Elder Abuse Occurring in Domestic Settings

Although greater recognition of the occurrence of elder abuse is beginning to emerge, the field has generated few theory-based explanations of what causes elder abuse and how best to respond to it. This paper reports the findings of two studies funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in an effort to begin to fill this void. The theoretical directions suggested in this paper are intended to spur the critique of existing theories and facilitate the development of new theories that will enhance our understanding of elder abuse. This paper addresses only a subset of the various types of elder abuse; future work should attend to other forms of elder maltreatment (e.g., psychological, sexual) not addressed here.