Physical Abuse of Older People by Their Families
When grandpa and grandma are getting on in years and they are living with their children, the data from reliable sources shows that in far too many cases, physical abuse is visited upon the elderly family members by their own children or grandchildren. This is a travesty but moreover it is a felony to physically abuse older people, and family members guilty of those attacks need to be advised that no matter how angry or un-happy they may be by an elderly family member's behaviors, violence is unacceptable.
The fact that Americans are growing older and that many of them are being physically abused -- in numerous cases by their own families -- is a great cause for concern. This paper references scholarly sources that point out the frequency of physical abuses that the elderly are subjected to, and the reasons why they are physically abused.
The first premise of this paper: a report on the frequency, seriousness, perpetrators of and definition of the kinds of physical violence that visited upon elderly people by their own families.
The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) -- a division of the U.S. Administration on Aging -- reports that abusers of older adults are both women and men, and in fact family members are "more often the abusers than any other group" (NCEA). The data obtained by NCEA shows that the most common abusers are the adult children of older people. Also, the most common perpetrators are "spouses" according to the data from NCEA.
The harming of an aged father or mother is on the one hand a family issue, but on the other hand it is unlawful to harm an older person. In most states, the NCEA points out, there are several laws relating to this problem, and some states have "increased...
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