ABSTRACT
The abuse of older people is the latest area of family violence to achieve some recognition as a serious issue in a society. This chapter is particularly concerned with enabling the reader to develop an increased understanding of these issues. Utilising terminology that is essentially about emphasising negative characteristics associated with ageing, it ignores the gains experienced as the people age, and the positive attributes that are present in older people. Many attempts have been made to justify the disempowerment of older people. The powerlessness and discrimination experienced by many older people has been described in more depth by authors such as Stevenson, Bytheway and Biggs. The research has identified elder abuse as a form of family violence, but this implies that it can be compared with and responded to in a similar way to child abuse.
