ABSTRACT
The Senior Center Coordinator was selected as an informant who could provide a collective perspective of crime and the elderly, relative to the group of regular attendees at the Senior Center. The interview began with an informal conversation concerning the one direct experience he had had with an older person and crime. Crime in is pretty small compared to elsewhere in the county, especially during [the] off-season. The interview drew to a close with the discussion of a hypothetical situation involving an elderly crime victim. This interview ended abruptly, due to a previously scheduled appointment the Victim/Witness Coordinator had to keep. The nature of the recently-established position, combined with only eight months of accumulated experience in it, may explain the coordinator’s generalized responses to most of the issues. The illustration of direct victimization, presented by this informant, raised some important points relative to the impact of the victimization.
