Elder Abuse by Caregivers Research Paper by Top Papers

The paper relates that elder abuse is a widespread issue that is prevalent in every country, but the problem is about to achieve much broader proportions because of a rapidly aging population. This paper uses the sociological perspective of symbolic interactionism to examine why elder abuse takes place and how society perceives this issue when it does occur. The paper notes that as research demonstrates, perceptions of elder abuse are not necessarily fair but instead are influenced by assumptions about gender as well as by ageism (Kinstle & Hodell, 2008). The paper also relates that older males consider the issue in terms of the future and their own increasing vulnerabilities whereas older women link elder abuse to their past experience as caregivers. The paper shows how culture plays an important role in the perception of abuse because of the high significance of family relationships.