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The research indicates that relatively powerful firms exploit their advantages to damage their weaker partners. However, how power can be abused by advantaged firms remains unclear. This study aims to examine the relationship between power advantage and abuse of power and whether the power advantage mediates the relationship between dependence and personal interests and between trust and company performance.

A total of 130 retailers in Taiwan were investigated. Partial least squares regression was performed to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results of this study show that power-advantaged firms are more likely to abuse their power; however, the purposes are more for their company performance than for personal interests. Power advantage has different mediating effects on the dependence–personal interests and trust–company performance relationships.

Considering both time and cost limitations, this study investigated one aspect of the retailer–supplier dyad in northern Taiwan. The samples collected may be influenced by the nature of the industry and sampling method, possibly limiting the generalizability of the research results.

This study can help channel managers with a power advantage to have an improved understanding of their salespersons’ behavioral patterns, particularly gaining personal interests from customers.

This study expands the understanding of the antecedents and consequences of power advantages in supplier–retailer relationships. It also highlights in specific institutional arrangements, the weaker parties’ efforts to endure their counterparts’ use of their power advantage to serve their personal interests. Future research may analyze abuse of power by expanding research to other industries and different cultural contexts.

The mental health field is viewed by some as reluctant to tackle the problem of abuse. While ‘adult protection’ offers one way forward, the authors of this paper caution against over‐enthusiastic borrowing from this paradigm. Instead they argue that mental health services will only become intolerant of abuse when there is widespread acceptance of the role of power abuse in psychological distress and disturbance.

Whether social workers should have a power of entry in cases where individuals seem to be hindering safeguarding enquiries for community-dwelling adults at risk is a topical question in England. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a re-examination of relevant sections of the 2012 Government Safeguarding Power of Entry Consultation.

Re-analysis of responses to question three of the 2012 Government’s Safeguarding Power of Entry Consultation was undertaken in late 2015-early 2016. The consultation submissions were located and searched for information on views of the prevalence of the situations where access to an adult at risk (with decision-making capacity) is being hindered by a third party and the nature of examples where a new power of entry might be considered appropriate by consultation respondents.

The majority of respondents to the consultation generally reported that situations when a new power of entry would be required were not encountered regularly; however a minority of respondents stated these situations occurred more frequently. Examples of situations where third parties appeared to be hindering access were given across the different categories of adults at risk and types of abuse and current practices were described. Respondents observed that the risks of excessive or inappropriate use of any new powers needed to be considered carefully.

This re-analysis sheds light on the prevalence and circumstances of the problems encountered about access to adults at risk. The legal framework of adult safeguarding continues to be of interest to policy makers, researchers and practitioners.

A schema for more clearly understanding the emotional and psychological abuse and neglect of people with intellectual disability was developed to support a narrative study with people with intellectual disability, families and other supporters about the lived experience of this maltreatment in disability accommodation services in Australia. This paper aims to describe the underpinning review of emotional and psychological abuse and neglect and the evolving new framework.

A review of existing understandings of this form of abuse in research and policy was conducted, and a framework developed and tested for “trustworthiness” with participants in the research.

A framework of emotional and psychological abuse and neglect is presented. It centres on the misuse of power and control, details behaviours and interactions which can occur when it is inflicted, and is tested against the experiences of people who have experienced this sort of abuse and neglect.

This is an evolving framework, applied through one study only. Further application and research is needed to test the robustness of the framework.

A more complex construction of emotional and psychological abuse and neglect may inform the development of service policy and support education for people with disability, families, and workers.

Abuse has received much attention over the past decade and many definitions abound. However, there has been a lack of research into the interpretations that care staff give to this concept. This article describes this aspect of a research study in which care staff views relating to vulnerability and abuse of adults with learning disabilities were explored (Parley, 2007). Using semi‐structured interview informants, perspectives were explored. The results showed that contact abuse (physical and sexual) was readily identified by most informants. However bullying, neglect and infringement of rights were less frequently identified. Furthermore, when prompted, some did not consider these to be abuse.

Enforcement as a concept imports compulsion to comply with a particular norm. Of course, the nature of enforcement might vary considerably with the norm in question or society within which action is desired. Professor Gower, in his ‘Review of Investor Protection’, expressed the view that a rule that could not be or was not enforced brought the system, within which that rule was supposed to operate, into disrepute. Whether this is true or not may be a matter for debate. Most systems of control envisage rules that in practical terms are unenforceable, but that are expected to have a normative or educational effect. Such functions, in the context of securities regulation, may be thought to be of some significance. Thus, the fact that simply because a rule cannot either in its terms or in practice be sanctioned by a predictable and determinate action intended to promote compliance, does not necessarily undermine that rule let alone the system within which it exists. To assume without more that a rule that cannot be enforced is not a legal rule, or to be precise a rule of law, while no doubt appealing enough to the positivist school of jurisprudence, is simplistic and outdated. Furthermore, in the context of the sort of economic regulation that we are discussing, whether a rule is characterised as one of law or not may or may not have significance. While there is a problem with determining the appropriate degree of interface between rules bearing differing qualities, purely in terms of achieving a defined regulatory objective it might well be that a rule which is not law in the formal sense of having been promulgated by an authority with legislative power, promotes a satisfactory degree of compliance. Therefore, many of the rules that pertained prior to the creation of the regime of regulation under the Financial Services Act 1986 were essentially non‐legal in the sense that they did not carry determinate sanctions ordained by a legal process consequent upon a violation and were not promulgated by an authority with legislative power. However, to dismiss them because they were unenforceable at law would give a very false picture of the efficacy of what was for many years a satisfactory regulatory structure. Even today, although the interrelationships of legal and non‐legal rules is very much more complex, it is still the case that significant areas of regulation have been left to non‐legal authorities.

Opinion is divided on whether a new power of entry should be introduced for social workers in cases where individuals seem to be hindering safeguarding enquiries for community-dwelling adults at risk in England who have decision-making capacity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence and circumstances of situations where access to an adult at risk is denied or difficult and what helps those in practice. The study consists of a literature review, a survey of adult safeguarding managers and interviews with social care staff in three case studies of local authorities. As part of the contextual literature review, during 2014 the authors located parliamentary debates on the subject and this paper reports on their analysis.

Following approaches were used in historical research, documentary analysis was carried out on transcripts of parliamentary debates available online from Hansard, supplemented by other materials that were referenced in speeches and set in the theoretical context of the representations of social problems.

The authors describe the content of debates on the risks and benefits of a new right to access for social workers and the role of parliamentary champions who determinedly pursued this policy, putting forward three unsuccessful amendments in efforts to insert such a new power into the Care Act 2014.

There are limits to a focus on parliamentary reports and the limits of Hansard reporting are small but need to be acknowledged. However, adult safeguarding research has surprisingly not undertaken substantial analyses of political rhetoric despite the public theatre of the debate and the importance of legislative initiatives and monitoring.

This paper adds to the history of adult safeguarding in England. It also offers insight into politicians’ views on what is known/unknown about the prevalence and circumstances of the problems with gaining access to adults with capacity where there are safeguarding concerns and politicians’ views on the merits or hazards of a power of access.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case for reflective practice with an intersectional focus in supporting practitioners working with gender-based violence (GBV). It is argued that GBV increases women’s experiences of social exclusion requiring support systems that are inclusive and alert to intersecting forms of oppression. Some challenges to inclusive practice are identified and some supportive practices are suggested.

Reflective practice examples are drawn from UK-based advocacy and therapeutic work involving women experiencing GBV.

Three critical challenges to inclusivity are identified: poor knowledge of intersectionality, misuse of power and over-reliance on the scope of empathy.

These themes are drawn from case examples gained from work-based practice with services in London and the southeast of England. The findings have limited scope but could be used to stimulate further research.

If health and social care services are to achieve a more inclusive response to women who experience GBV then reflective practice needs to shift the focus to a broader inquiry into women’s experiences. Whilst reflective practice cannot overturn the power invested in the health and social care sector it can help individual practitioners to respond to the inequalities they observe.

It is argued that providing a regular reflective space is an effective mechanism for fostering inclusive practice responses to women experiencing GBV.

Intersectionality, power and empathy are identified as central themes for improving practitioner responses to GBV. How these themes apply to interactions between practitioners and abused women is demonstrated through examples from reflective practice sessions.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the background to the recent changes to adult safeguarding in Wales as a result of the new measures introduced by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and discuss their potential impact.

The paper relies on a range of material including reports published by the Law Commission, the National Assembly for Wales and other public bodies. It also refers to academic and practitioner material in journals and government guidance.

Although the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 introduced many changes in adult safeguarding in Wales, not least the duty to make enquiries, it does not take the opportunity to include statutory powers of barring and removal. The introduction of Adult Protection and Support Orders (APSOs) is a cautious step forward – perhaps it is too cautious. More research in needed on the different approaches across the UK.

At the time of publication, the full effect of the new legislation has not been seen. Local authorities and others are coming to terms with the new provisions. No data on the impact of the new legislation are yet available. The paper identifies future research evaluating the working of the different approaches to safeguarding within the UK.

For practitioners, the new legislation provides opportunities to rethink the approach to safeguarding. The lower threshold for referrals will mean an increase in caseloads and the need to react to both low- and high-risk cases. For authorised officers, the practical issues identified relate to the circumstances in which an APSO may be sought and what can be put in place to protect the adult at risk once the order has been used.

For those who experience abuse or neglect, the new legislation provides additional support when compared to the POVA process. The duty to make enquiries and the duty to report will hopefully strengthen protection and, with a lower threshold for referral, enable more preventative work to be done at an earlier stage. Whether the new APSO will make a difference remains to be seen.

As this is new legislation, there is very little analysis of the implications of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 in relation to safeguarding. This paper presents an overview and, in places, a critical analysis of the new safeguarding duties.

The purpose of this study is to highlight how people acting as Enduring Power of Attorney (EPoA) abuse their privilege in relation to real estate transactions through analysis of five court cases. This study thereby provides insight into how and why adult children cross the line into the realm of misconduct.

The approach involved a review of various court proceedings relating to elder financial abuse, and the synthesis of the important facts and judgements made that constitute unconscionable conduct, undue influence and passive acceptance of benefit. The cases selected focus on real estate transactions.

The research revealed some key commonalities and that property and living arrangements are the issues highly contested in courts for small estates.

The case review provides some critical findings that are valuable for wealth management professionals or managing an ageing person’s care and living arrangements. It provides practical insights for the importance of independent legal and financial advice when entering real estate transactions. The findings also inform real estate agent practice in helping to reduce elder financial abuse through robust checks if an Attorney is acting on behalf of a Principal. The authors also support improving EPoA guidance and professionalization to assist Attorney’s to carry out their duties with appropriate care.

A review of cases relating to EPoA in relation to real estate is novel and makes an important contribution to developing resources to educate Attorney’s and financial service professionals, including real estate agents.