Essay on fear of crime and older people
At the turn of the twenty first century eighteen percent of the population, some 10.7 million people, were over pensionable age 4.5 million of these were over the age of 75. It is likely that by 2021 this will have increased to 12.2 million (Moore, 2002). It is certainly the case that in the last hundred years people’s life expectancy has increased dramatically placing greater demand on the health service and on caring services generally. Many older people remain in their own homes and at some stage receive some kind of care to help them remain there. In England there are presently about 200,000 people in registered residential homes, 35,000 are in homes run by the local authority and 165,000 in independently run homes, there are a further 150,000 in nursing homes. For every 1000 people over retirement age six will be in residential care by the age of seventy five.
Giddens (1989) maintains that in the west there is less respect for the elderly than there is in more traditional societies. In spite of this lack of respect crime statistics tend to suggest that older people are the least likely to be the victims of crime (Ward et al, 1986). The marketisation of care, and the growth of private care homes means that there is some evidence to suggest that the elderly may be more at risk of abuse of their rights and criminal assault in residential settings than they are in their own home. This paper therefore, will investigate the notion that fear of crime among and against the elderly is dependent on locale.
Crime and the Elderly
The elderly are concerned about crime and about their ability to cope with the trauma, this is particularly the case for women. A Welsh study of older burglary victims in sheltered accommodation…
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Tags: abuse, burglary victims, crime statistics, crime survey, criminals, the elderly, UK, victimisation
