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Ethical issues and moral reasoning are important in the tax policy context because shared moral values create good societies (Paul et al., 2006). This study of the equitable relief subset of the innocent spouse rules is a good example of Congressional and IRS policy that has been substantially reformed twice (and continues to be reassessed) to create tax law that effectively treats innocent spouses equitably (Fleischman & Shen, 1999). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which subjects' moral reasoning, using the first two steps of Rest's (1986) ethical reasoning model, is related to perceived moral intensity (Jones, 1991) in several tax-based equitable relief situations. Integrative social contracts theory provides the study's theoretical lens.

Subjects evaluated a mailed-questionnaire containing two separate equitable relief scenarios about a spouse who was unaware of her husband's tax evasion – one scenario included verbal abuse and the other scenario contained no such abuse. The survey also contained a variety of ethics and attitudinal measures used to measure the study's focal variables. The results support the a priori hypotheses that moral intensity is positively related to recognition of an ethical issue, judgment that the ethical scenario is unethical, and judgment to grant equitable relief. In addition, the scenario containing emotional abuse was associated with increased levels of moral intensity as compared to the scenario that did not contain abuse. The paper concludes with a discussion of both professional and public policy implications.

Married couples receive tax benefits such as favorable tax rates, higher exclusions, higher phase-outs, and combined deductions. However, joint and several tax liability is a major issue facing these taxpayers. The term innocent spouse relief, within the Internal Revenue Code, is a direct result of one spouse failing to satisfy the joint liability for the married couple. Since both individuals are jointly and severally liable for the combined liability, the innocent spouse may be responsible for the liability in whole or in part. Our study examines this highly litigated arena of innocent spouse relief. To assist in this area of taxation, the Internal Revenue Service has provided taxpayers and tax practitioners with guidance. Revenue Procedure 2003-61 (2003-2 CB 296) outlines factors useful in determining whether innocent spouse relief should be granted. Additionally, this study creates a predictive model containing only three significant factors (economic hardship, knowledge/reason, significant benefit) capable of predicting with approximately 89% accuracy. These same three variables are significant after running multiple regression with p-values of 0.002 (economic hardship), 0.000 (knowledge/reason to know), and 0.001 (significant benefit). These factors provide valuable insight to practitioners when advising clients on challenging or accepting the Internal Revenue Service's decision. Additionally, abuse is marginally significant in the regression model. Also, judge gender and political affiliation are analyzed. However, the gender of the judge and political affiliation fail to be statistically significant using the chi-square test and regression model.

This study examines whether Revenue Procedure 2003-61 is an improvement over Revenue Procedure 2000-15, in the areas of taxpayers’ expectations for IRS equitable relief decisions and gender-related in-group bias. The survey instrument includes a vignette adapted from a judicial decision. The results show that Rev. Proc. 2003-61 does improve upon Rev. Proc. 2000-15. Furthermore, taxpayers perceive different expectations of what the IRS should do and what the IRS would do in equitable relief decision making. Also, gender-related in-group biases are found to be present for both genders. Tax policy implications regarding equitable relief are discussed.

This article aims to explore the perpetrators of abuse among older women living in the community. The study examines whether differences between the perpetrators of different forms of abuse, and for different groups of older women (e.g. by income or age groups) can be detected. Finally, it aims to investigate whether older women talk about the abuse to family or friends, or report it to an official or formal agency, in relation to different perpetrators.

This article provides results from the prevalence study of Abuse and Violence against Older Women in Europe (AVOW‐study). The study involved scientific partners from five EU countries: Finland, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, and Portugal. In these five countries, the same study was conducted during 2010. In total, 2,880 older women living in the community were interviewed during the course of the study.

The results indicate that 28.1per cent of older women across all countries have experienced some kind of violence and abuse, in the last 12 months, by someone who is close to them. The results offer specific figures for the prevalence of different types of abuse, i.e. physical, psychological, sexual, and financial abuse; violation of personal rights; and neglect. Furthermore, additional insights about the main perpetrators of abuse for different groups of older women are offered.

The article does not address the differences between the five countries. Further research could examine the between‐country variations and identify possible country‐specific explanations.

The implications of these findings for the development of policy and practice are highlighted. Applying only a crime‐focused approach on this topic is not sufficient. Health and social welfare sectors play a key role in ensuring dignity in, and quality of, formal and informal care and need to be supported to do so.

The paper presents the findings of an extensive multi‐national survey on abuse of older women in five European countries.

This paper examines the decision criteria used by federal courts to adjudicate equitable innocent-spouse relief, when such relief has previously been denied by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Empirical logit/probit regression is used, rather than traditional legal analysis. Specifically, we determine which of the equitable-relief criteria detailed in the innocent-spouse rules did affect judicial decisions during our sample period. We also determine the relative importance of the factors. Using these data, taxpayers and their advisors can better decide whether to pursue further litigation, and how best to tailor the pertinent arguments.

The ways in which battered women respond to domestic violence, and the ways the legal system constructs those responses, constitute the framework of this chapter. The analysis focuses on mitigation in sentences of battered women who killed their abusers and examines the manifestation of agency and victimization in the mitigation structure. My thesis is that these women are perceived by courts solely as victims who lack agency and autonomy. Three main themes emerge from the analysis: first, the courts focus on the mental state of the defendants, stressing their psychological deficiencies as the primary mitigating factors. Secondly, many cases are categorized by courts as unique cases. Thirdly, in several cases the courts portray the women as “victims of circumstances”. An alternative analysis to that offered by the courts, one that seeks to reframe the mitigation process, is introduced in this chapter. According to this analysis, the narrative used in cases of battered women who kill should be changed to reflect dimensions of agency and resistance. In the suggested discourse, the abuse these women suffer is acknowledged, but is used to explain the women's urge to self-preservation and thus, the rationality and reasonableness of their acts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine, through a qualitative lens, how community elder abuse and the ageing process are represented in the older adults’ narratives reporting abuse perpetrated by family members.

A qualitative study of a convenience sample of 22 interviews from 24 older adults (two couples) aged 60 years or older who had experienced one or more types of abuse and had sought help about the victimisation experience. A general inductive approach of thematic content analysis was employed.

The four main emergent themes related to the passage of time or the perception of becoming old within the process of abuse were: abuse grown old, abuse after entering later life, vulnerability to abuse and responses to abuse. Ageing was found to be associated with an increase vulnerability to abuse and an important element in shaping how older adults experience, report and cope with victimization. The social and contextual issues of being older also influenced the decision of ending (or not) the abuse and the victims’ repertoire of responses.

Despite the little suitability of chronological age to define and delimit elder abuse, understanding the phenomenon demands the recognition of ageing (both as a process and as a product) in order to more accurately identify aetiology processes and develop interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance and importance of developing and making use of robust theory to explain and counter the tenacious social anomaly of the abuse of older people who live in care homes.

The activities of theorising and conducting research to gain revised theoretical comprehension of why abuse occurs in care homes, along with the enduring over reliance of those with an interest in safeguarding on existing theories borrowed from other fields to guide their activities are considered and discussed.

There is a pressing need for theory based understandings of the continuing abuse of older people and it is apparent that the development of such theory will be more productive if theorising and theory development are specific to certain types of abuse perpetrated in delineated settings.

The paper offers the opportunity for the reader to consider the significance of theorising and developing new theory in order to improve of the protection of potentially vulnerable adults by virtue of the guidance it can provide to the activities of policy makers, managers and practitioners.

This is a conceptual paper from which future theorising and research may arise to better understand the most fundamental causes of the abuse of older people in care homes (and elsewhere) in order to develop feasible and effective measures to overcome it.

Through the lens afforded by two theories drawn from the discipline of social psychology, the purpose of this paper is to explain the evident continuing abuse of adults at risk living in care homes by the staff who should be looking after them.

By considering existing theories and research into the reasons why vulnerable adults are abused the paper proposes the relevance of other extant theories on the degradation of moral restraint and dehumanisation of victims, and on the social psychology of intergroup relations, to the perpetration of abuse.

The paper demonstrates how theories that explain the psychology of human behaviour in certain circumstances may be usefully applied to the inveterate social problem of the abuse of vulnerable adults living in care homes.

The paper offers the opportunity for the reader to consider how these theories of social psychology may be applied to explain and guide remedies to the persistent levels of abuse in English care homes, abuse that continues despite government oversight of care provided to adults who may be at risk by virtue of the activities of the statutory regulator and health and social care commissioners, and the interventions of safeguarding personnel.

This is a conceptual paper from which future research and theorising may arise to better understand the most fundamental causes of the abuse of older people in care homes in order to develop feasible and effective measures to overcome it.