Older people, victims and crime

In the relatively short history of victimology older people have, with a few marked exceptions, largely remained at the periphery of key developments and discussion. Indeed, even in wider remit of criminology, it is rare to come across a systematic application of standard criminological theories to the issue of older victims (or indeed older offenders) (Payne, 2011). Whilst a sizeable body of research has in fact built up over the years exploring various aspects of criminal victimisation and the fear of crime amongst those in later life, it is still by no means a mainstream subject for many victimologists when compared to, for example, victims of theft, burglary and ‘traditional’ notions of domestic violence . Not only is the literature relatively scarce, in more recent years there have developed palpable disagreements as to the nature and extent of victimisation amongst older people, and how such people react to crime and the fear of crime. Increasingly the traditional summation/dismissal of the issue as simply being that old people fall victim to crime very rarely, and yet ‘irrationally’ have the greatest fear of crime, is coming under closer scrutiny (see Clarke and Lewis, 1982).