engleski

Sexual violence against elderly people

Population aging is a continuous process that has been recognized for several decades. In parallel with the aging of the population, the problem of violence against the elderly is also growing. Elderly people are a particularly risky group for all forms of violence. Available research shows a high "dark figure" of all forms of violence against the elderly, and crimes against the elderly are reported and sanctioned less often than among the younger population. Sexual abuse of the elderly is a particularly delicate and often neglected area, both by researchers and practitioners, and often remains unrecognized. Possible reasons for the neglect of this area are: the abuse of the elderly has only recently become an area of interest for the professional public ; older people are often portrayed as having no interest in sexual activity ; sexuality in the later stages of life is a "taboo" area ; elderly victims of sexual abuse deny that it happened much more often than in other forms of abuse. The reasons for denying abuse are numerous: fear of retaliation by the perpetrator, fear of moving away from the area where they live, fear of possible embarrassment, lack of trust in loved ones, etc. The characteristics of the victim, the perpetrator, and the act of sexual abuse in the elderly depend significantly on their state of health. Elderly people with dementia are more often abused by a known person (family member, caregiver, other users of the home for the elderly) compared to other elderly people. They do not verbalize the abuse but show changes in their behavior, and their perpetrators are less often sanctioned. Elderly people who do not suffer from dementia are more often abused by strangers, they verbalize what happened to them more often and their perpetrators are more often reported to institutions and sanctioned. A special problem in the detection and sanctioning of sexual abuse against elderly people is their health condition, especially in the case of people with dementia or other health conditions that affect their mental capacity and the ability to give consent for sexual activity. The paper will present current knowledge about this issue in the world, as well as presentations from our own practice.

eldery people, violence, sexual abuse

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