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The purpose of this paper was to test whether differences in attributions between caseworkers and their elderly clients regarding the cause of reported elder abuse occurring in a domestic setting impact the ability of caseworkers to effectively intervene in elder abuse cases.

Interviews were conducted with 63 pairs of caseworkers and either the elderly client with a substantiated report of elder abuse or their surrogate.

Initially, 61.9 percent of the pairs of interviewees held discordant attributions regarding the cause of the elderly person's abuse. However, at the close of the investigation, only 41.3 percent of the pairs of interviewees held discordant causal attributions, with 13 elderly persons having changed their attributions to be in alignment with the caseworker. Discordant causal attributions at the close of the investigation was related to an inability to find a resolution and achieving cessation of abuse.

It will be beneficial to determine methods APS caseworkers can employ to narrow the causal attribution gap.

Reconciling discordant causal attributions while maintaining victim autonomy can enhance the likelihood of effective interventions and lead to greater victim safety. However, this takes more time than most APS caseworkers in the USA are allowed by statute to allocate to one case and may necessitate statutory changes that accompany changes in practice.

This is the first study to assess differences between caseworkers and their elderly clients regarding their causal attributions of reported abuse occurring and whether those differences are related to the likelihood of reaching a resolution and the cessation of abuse.

Little empirical attention has been given to adult protective services (APS) investigations and the clients involved in those investigations. The purpose of this study was to explore aspects of the APS investigation of and response to reported elder maltreatment, the perceptions of elderly victims and their refusal of services, and to compare findings by the type of maltreatment involved (financial exploitation, physical abuse, neglect, and hybrid financial exploitation).

Data were collected from two sources over a two‐year period: in‐depth interviews with 71 APS caseworkers and 55 of the corresponding elderly victims who experienced substantiated elder maltreatment; and a statewide database that contained 2,142 substantiated cases of elder abuse.

Many aspects of the APS investigation and response differed by the type of maltreatment involved. While elderly victims were generally cooperative and satisfied with the APS intervention, 38 percent would have preferred APS not to investigate their case. Elderly clients responded differentially to offers of assistance, depending on the type of abuse involved, with victims of physical abuse most likely to refuse services.

Future research will want to understand why elderly victims refuse services in order to develop appropriate interventions.

New approaches may be required for intervening in physical abuse cases, including collaborations between APS and domestic violence advocates and the inclusion of services for perpetrators.

This is the first large‐scale study to examine elderly victims' refusal of services, further enhanced by the analysis of refusal of services by type of abuse, thereby revealing a group of victims for which changes in intervention strategies may be necessary.

The purpose of this paper was to study the vexing problem of defining financial exploitation. Advocates and practitioners in the field who have been battling financial exploitation are pleased to observe the increased attention that financial exploitation is receiving at all levels of society. With this increased attention, however, there has been a conflation of terms used to describe financial exploitation, resulting in some confusion about what constitutes financial exploitation.

Fully recognizing that definitions serve different functions, this paper identifies three main purposes of a definition and then describes the myriad ways financial exploitation has been defined in the research literature, by organizations, and in civil and criminal statutes.

Financial exploitation has been defined in multiple ways within and across categories. Furthermore, the definition has expanded over time. This paper proposes the need for greater definitional clarity around the concept of financial exploitation, and argues that at a minimum a distinction must be made between financial exploitation and financial fraud.

This is the first paper to comprehensively review the myriad ways in which financial exploitation has been defined in the literature, by organizations and within state civil and criminal statutes.

The study of theoretical models explaining elder abuse has been one of the main gaps in the literature of the field. The extent of support of each theory is not clear. This study aims to conduct a systematic review to examine research supporting or opposing six theories of elder abuse: caregiver stress theory, social exchange theory, social learning theory, bidirectional theory, dyadic discord theory and the psychopathology of the caregiver.

This study conducts a systematic review of the literature. Seven databases were searched six times using different keywords about each theory.

This paper finds 26,229 references and then organised and analysed these references using pre-established criteria. In total, 89 papers were selected, which contained 117 results of interest; these papers were summarised and assessed for conceptual, methodological and evidence quality. The results showed evidence in favour of all the explored theories, except for social learning theory, whose results indicate multiple interpretations of the theory. This study finishes this paper by proposing that each of these theories might explain different facets of elder abuse and that more research is necessary to understand how the predictions of these different theories interact.

This paper presents an extensive review of the literature on theoretical explanations of elder abuse. The findings can be of value for selecting theories for prevention programmes or providing a summary of the evidence for researchers and practitioners interested in the theoretical explanation of elder abuse.

Purpose – This chapter will demonstrate the usefulness of mixed methods research in an understudied area of criminology and criminal justice, namely elder financial exploitation.

Methodology/approach – The data and research methodology described in this chapter come from a recently completed comprehensive case study of elder financial exploitation in Florida.

Findings – Elder financial exploitation is a growing social problem in the United States and there is little theoretical or empirical research available regarding the prevalence, risk factors, protective factors, and consequences. Given that the current status of the research literature is largely fragmented and discontinuous, conducting a survey aimed at validation was not possible. Through the mixed method case study involving a literature review, focus group discussions, and interview questions, the authors have developed a theoretical framework for elder financial exploitation that can be quantitatively validated.

Originality/value – This chapter provides justification for the expanded use of mixed methods research for other understudied topic areas within criminology and criminal justice and provides the foundation for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework for explaining elder financial exploitation.

This study aims to explore the risk and protective factors of abuse on older adults by family caregivers, with a special focus on the protective role of caregiver resilience in elder abuse.

This cross-sectional survey was conducted on a purposive sample of 600 family caregivers of community-dwelling older adults in Hong Kong (mean age = 71.04 and female = 67.2%). Caregivers reported in a guided interview about elder abuse behaviours, caregiver burden, care recipients’ agitated behaviours, caregiver resilience, self-efficacy, social support and basic demographic characteristics. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of different forms of elder abuse.

Caregiver resilience was predictive of lower levels of verbal abuse, physical abuse, injury and financial exploitation but not potentially harmful behaviour (PHB). Social support was independent with all forms of elder abuse, while self-efficacy predicted greater physical abuse after the adjustment of confounding variables. Caregiver burden and agitated behaviours by care recipients remained as significant risk factors in the final models when protective factors were considered.

This study extends current knowledge on the protecting role of resilience in elder abuse in family caregiving. Mixed findings revealed on social support and self-efficacy also highlight the complexity of the prediction of caregiver abuse. Further research should address this area.

The findings of this study warrant the inclusion of caregiver resilience as a key component in developing interventions to prevent elder abuse. Addressing caregiver burden and agitated behaviours have the potential in preventing elder abuse.

The findings raise awareness of the importance of supporting caregivers in the community to prevent elder abuse.

Research concerning the protective factors of elder abuse is in a preliminary stage. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first which successfully demonstrates the protective role of resilience in caregiver abuse on older adults. The findings shed invaluable light on the design of effective interventions.

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.

Responding to suspected financial abuse in residential aged care provides particular challenges to care managers. This paper aims to explore responses to financial abuse by care managers and the knowledge, policies and principles that guide practice in this context.

The research is part of a larger project exploring financial asset management and financial abuse in residential aged care in Australia. The thematic analysis reports on responses of care managers in 62 aged care facilities to survey interview questions and case scenarios presenting issues of alleged financial abuse.

Although most care managers accepted an obligation to act in response to suspected financial abuse, inconsistency and a lack of familiarity with policy are clearly demonstrated. Practice responses vary according to whether the primary focus is on residents, family or managing risk. Despite most reporting policies in place in the event of alleged theft, reports on the use of policies and protocols to guide responses to suspected misuse of an enduring power of attorney or undue influence are limited. The care manager's knowledge and approach to practice are crucial to framing the response.

The research provides insight into inconsistencies in responses to financial abuse in residential aged care, identifies good practice and outlines the limitations in knowledge of some care managers. It argues for the need to enhance understanding, support and training to further develop practice in this setting, particularly in relation to adult protection principles.

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.

This study aims to investigate whether low self‐control and routine activity theories explain fraud outcomes among the elderly. Specifically, the effects of low self‐control and remote purchasing behaviors on shopping fraud targeting and victimization are empirically assessed.

Cross‐sectional survey data from telephone interviews conducted in Arizona and Florida are used. A total of 2,000 adults aged 60 and over were surveyed. Because selection bias was observed, a two‐stage probit regression model was estimated to assess theoretical hypotheses in a multivariate context.

The results demonstrate that two forms of remote purchasing – telemarketing purchase and mail‐order purchase – increase the probability of shopping fraud targeting. Infomercial purchase and mail‐order purchase are significant correlates of shopping fraud victimization. The probability of becoming a target and victim is affected positively by reduced levels of self‐control. The effects of demographic characteristics on fraud outcomes are null.

This research lends support to the argument that low self‐control and routine activity theories shed light on fraud victimization among elderly consumers. Future research should examine the influence of low self‐control, individual routines and lifestyles on other forms of victimization that the elderly experience.

The findings underscore the need for fraud prevention and increasing public awareness among elderly consumers.

This is the first study to examine shopping fraud targeting and victimization of the elderly in a broad theoretical context.