ABSTRACT

Many of the deception vulnerabilities we have reviewed with children and younger adolescents have relevance with the elderly. The underlying mechanism in all cases is the functioning of the central nervous system. The effects of neural immaturity with the younger population impact cortical functioning in a predictable and progressive course. That usual course is subject to modification with events of illness or trauma, but otherwise follows a predictable tract as it courses through to old age. This natural course of the neural system is an existential given in all living organisms. The inevitable process of aging and neural deterioration besets the elderly and impacts the susceptibilities of the elderly to deceptive behavior both as actors and as victims.