National Institute of Justice Research in Brief: Results from an Elder Abuse Prevention Experiment in New York City

摘要

A fieldexperiment of an intervention toreduce repeat incidents of elderabuse. Randomly selected public housing projects in New York City received educational material about elder abuse, while others did not. Some households that reported elder abuse to the police were selected by lottery to receive a followup home visit from a police officer and a domestic violence counselor. Data on postreport abuse were collected at 6 and 12 months after the initial report to the police. Key issues: Experts increasingly recognize that elder abuse, like spousal violence and other forms of family abuse, is a complex problem requiring multifaceted solutions. An evaluation of a domestic violence intervention in the mid-1980s found that victims were more likely to call the police for subsequent incidents if a police officer domestic violence counselor team intervened when police were first called. Based on that success, a field test was designed to test the intervention with elderabuse. The program consisted either of public education aboutelderly abuse, visits to families where elder abuse occurred by a police officer and domestic violence counselor, or both.