ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what is known (and what we do not know) about sexual violence against older people. As most research reports that women are disproportionately the victims, and men the perpetrators, this chapter is primarily focused on rape and sexual assault of women aged 60 and over. The chapter explores how older women have been invisible in research, policy, and practice concerning sexual violence due to a combination of ageist and sexist attitudes which have combined to render older people as unlikely victims (and offenders) of violence and abuse. The conceptual framing of sexual (and other forms of) violence against older people as “elder abuse” is a symptom of this wider apathy among feminist scholars and has resulted in a camouflaging of the nature and causes of sexual violence against older women. Recommendations for practice and research are cautiously offered.
