The recent conviction of Anthony Marshall for defrauding and neglecting his elderly mother, New York City Grand Dame Brooke Astor, is a sobering reminder that elder abuse permeates all echelons of our society. Elder abuse is a widespread and largely invisible crime and unless we treat it as seriously as we did domestic violence in the 1970s, the incidence will worsen significantly. Moreover, abusers will continue to be confident that their misdeeds will go unreported since their victims have no voice.
The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging estimates that five million older Americans may be victims of abuse, neglect or exploitation every year. Alarmingly, current estimates put the overall reporting of financial exploitation at only 1 in 25 cases, suggesting each year millions of additional financial abuse crimes are never known.
The incidence of elder abuse will increase steadily because older Americans are the fastest-growing segment of the general population. The number of seniors in Los Angeles will more than double by the year 2030, from 1.4 million to over 3 million, as 6,000 Angelenos turn 60 every day. Moreover, as detailed in a 2007 report by the California Department of Aging, “the fastest-growing group among older Californians is already those over 85.” Older seniors disproportionately experience Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and physical disorders that render them dependent and therefore vulnerable to abuse. The families of our nation’s 77 million baby boomers, who represent this impending spike in elder population growth, should be concerned.
California has made some strides in advance of the demographic trends. Ours was the first state to enact a private cause of action for elder abuse, codified in the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act. In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a package of legislation that overhauled the state conservatorship system to protect seniors from unscrupulous private fiduciaries. Moreover, a number of jurisdictions — Los Angeles County among them — have begun to treat elder abuse for what it is: a serious crime on par with child abuse and domestic violence.
However, unlike domestic violence and child abuse, we still do not have sufficient prosecutorial resources, publicity, 1-800 phone lines, nonprofit institutions, and support from private and public funders to effectively fight elder abuse. Most importantly, we don’t have comprehensive federal and state efforts to deal with this problem. The Elder Justice Act (S. 795), now part of the Health Reform legislation, has languished in Congress for seven years, and only 2 percent of all federal dollars dedicated to family violence is for abused elders.
The Elder Justice Act would create an Office of Elder Justice within the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a public and private Elder Justice Coordinating Council to coordinate national and local efforts. It also would fund adult protective services activities at the federal level, provide resources for local elder abuse prevention efforts and to raise public awareness, and fund and evaluate local projects to identify successful approaches to elder abuse prevention, prosecution and victim services.
In our view, funding must go to educate police about financial elder abuse as well as to increase significantly the number of local prosecutors assigned to these cases. In many communities, police departments still assign officers accustomed to investigating garden-variety theft and robberies to cases of elder abuse, which can be as complicated as the white-collar financial crimes investigated by the FBI. Federal and state funding to buttress law enforcement expertise and capacity are urgently needed.
The consequences of elder abuse are extreme and often include seniors losing their homes and life savings, as well as being made to live in neglected, shameful conditions. The Astor verdict shines a spotlight on a criminal problem that will grow in severity unless we immediately respond with the resources, expertise and publicity it requires. l
The consequences of elder abuse are extreme and often include seniors losing their homes and life savings, as well as being made to live in neglected, shameful conditions.
Aviva K. Bobb is a retired supervising judge of the L.A. County Probate Courts. Mitchell A. Kamin is president and CEO of Bet Tzedek Legal Services.
