Elder Abuse: Remember To Always Ignore The Men - Richard L. Davis

May 2, 2005

by Richard L. Davis

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.

- Benjamin Franklin

How or why have our public policy makers allowed domestic violence intervention to become gender specific? If the Violence Against Women Act is gender neutral, as Senator Biden claims it is, why is it called the Violence Against Women Act?

The office for Victims of Crime (OVC) invites applicants to apply for a $350,000.00 grant to develop a series of videotapes concerning the issue of domestic violence and/or assault against older women. Why has OVC chosen to ignore older male victims?

OVC announces that the purpose of the grant is to highlight an overall community response to one or both of these crimes against elder women. Why not present an overall community response to one or both of these crimes against both elder women and men? Is it really necessary to ignore male victimization?

The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates that approximately one of every three elder victims is male. A National Institute of Justice report documents that approximately one of every three abusers is female.

The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study Final Report of September 1998 documents the following victimization. Males only comprise 42.4% of the elder population over 60 and hence female victimization will be over represented.

Neglect Emotional Physical Financial Abandonment

Male 40.0% 23.7% 28.6% 37.0% 62.2%

Female 60.0% 76.3% 71.4% 63% 37.8%

The OVC intends to present the elder female victimization videos to victim advocates, service providers, health care providers, faith community leaders, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges. All of these professionals will receive no information about elder male victimization. Out of sight, out of mind perhaps?

Can it really be true that the office for Victims of Crime simply do not care about male victimization? How is it that our public policy makers have decided that male victimization, regardless of age, just does not matter?

Richard L. Davis served in the United States Marine Corps from 1960 to 1964. He is a retired lieutenant from the Brockton, Massachusetts police department. He has a graduate degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College and another in liberal arts from Harvard University. He has a BA from Bridgewater State College in History and he minored in secondary education. He is a member of the International Honor Society of Historians and an instructor of Criminology, Group Violence and Terrorism, Criminal Justice and Domestic Violence at Quincy College in Plymouth, MA. He is a past president of the Community Center for Non-Violence in New Bedford, Massachusetts and the vice president for Family Nonviolence, Inc. www.familynonviolence.org in Fairhaven, MA. He is also a board member of the Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men at http://www.batteredmenshelpline.org/

He is an independent consultant for criminal justice agencies concerning policies, procedures, and programs concerning domestic violence. He is the author of Domestic Violence: Facts and Fallacies by Praeger publishers and has written numerous articles for newspapers, journals, and magazines concerning the issue of domestic violence. He has columns concerning domestic violence at www.policeone.com, and www.nycop.com, is a distance learner instructor in Introduction to Criminal Justice and Domestic Violence for the Online Police Academy and has a website at www.policewriter.com. He and Kim Eyer have a domestic violence website The Cop and the Survivor at http://www.rhiannon3.net/cs/. He lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts with his wife and the two youngest of five children. He experienced domestic violence professionally for 21 years as a police officer and personally as a child and as an adult. In his retirement he continues to use his education, experience, and training to help the children, women, and men who have had to endure violence from those who profess to love them. He may be reached at rldavis@post.harvard.edu.