The Double Edged Sword of Violent Victimization Against the Elderly

Utilizing two national data sources, the National Crime Victimization Survey and the Comparative Homicide File, this study documents trends and patterns of both lethal and nonlethal forms of violent victimization against the elderly and how these patterns compare to victimization against younger Americans. It was found that elderly victims of nonlethal violence have increasingly reported that their assailants have been relatives over the past two decades. However, older American still appear to be proportionately more vulnerable to nonlethal forms of violence committed by strangers. Equal proportions of elderly victims of homicide were killed by strangers, acquaintances, or relatives. While elderly victims of homicide were more often killed during the commission of another felony such as a robbery, the proportion of victims killed during a conflict situation was not much lower than that of felony related homicide. In contrast, those under the age of 65 were most likely to be killed by an acquaintance in a...