Section 4: Fact sheet — Police-reported family violence against older adults

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This section examines the prevalence and nature of police-reported violent crimes committed against seniors (65 years and older) by members of their family in 2007.

Incidents of violent crime against seniors are measured through data reported to the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR2) Survey by a subset of police services. In 2007, a subset of 153 police forces reported to the UCR2, representing approximately 94% of the population of Canada. ¹  The UCR2 Survey captures data on violence that constitutes a criminal offence according to the Canadian Criminal Code. Violent crimes against seniors include such Criminal Code offences as physical assault, sexual assault, robbery, criminal harassment, uttering threats, and other violent violations. ² 

Police-reported data on violence committed against seniors in Canada underestimates the prevalence of such crimes. Like other victims of crime, seniors may not report their victimization to police. Results from the 2004 General Social Survey on victimization revealed that about half of all violent crimes committed against seniors were reported to police, compared to about 44% for non-seniors (Ogrodnik, 2007; Gannon, 2006). ³  Thus, police-reported surveys are limited to providing information on violence against seniors that comes to the attention of law enforcement. In addition, other forms of abuse such as neglect, financial abuse and emotional or psychological abuse often are not captured by police-reported data and therefore, are not included in the present report.

Seniors were usually victimized by someone they knew, often a relative

In 2007, there were 5,499 police-reported incidents of violent crime committed against seniors. Seniors represented 2% of all victims of police-reported violent crime and were less likely than younger people to be the victim of a violent offence in 2007. Similar to previous years, the rate of violent victimization for seniors (135 per 100,000) was 15 times lower than the rate for 15 to 24 year-olds (2,067 per 100,000), the age group at highest risk of victimization (Chart 4.1).

Police-reported data show that seniors, like victims from all other age groups, were more likely to report being victimized by someone they knew (94 per 100,000) than by a stranger (41 per 100,000) (Table 4.1). About half of these violent crimes by a known perpetrator involved a friend or acquaintance of the senior (1,904 incidents), while the other half involved a family member (1,938 incidents). Violent offences against seniors by a family member represented more than one-third of all violent incidents committed against older adults.

In 2007, for every 100,000 seniors, 48 were the victims of a police-reported violent crime at the hands of a relative. In 2007, as in the past, senior men suffered higher overall rates of violent victimization compared to senior women (Table 4.1). However, senior women had higher rates of violence involving a family member (52 per 100,000), in comparison to their male counterparts (43 per 100,000).

In the decade from 1998 to 2007, the rate of police-reported family violence against seniors was generally stable, according to trend data from a subset of police services. Following a 20% increase between 1998 and 2000, the rate of family violence for seniors remained relatively similar and in 2007, was 3% higher than it had been in 2000. ⁴ 

Victims’ adult children and spouses or ex-spouses were the most common perpetrators of family violence against seniors

Adult children (83% of whom were adult sons) were the relatives most frequently implicated in family violence against seniors, followed by current and former spouses. However, male and female victims differed somewhat in terms of which family member had been their abuser (Table 4.1).

For senior women, the rate of victimization by a current or former spouse (17 per 100,000) was similar to the rate of victimization by an adult child (16 per 100,000) (Chart 4.2). In addition, female seniors (17 per 100,000) were nearly 2 times more likely than senior men (9 per 100,000) to be victimized by a spouse or an ex-spouse. Male seniors who had been the victims of family violence were more likely to be victimized by their adult children (15 per 100,000) than by any other relative.

Older seniors had lower family violence rates

Police-reported data show that rates of family violence were highest among younger seniors and lowest among older seniors. In fact, the family violence rate among seniors aged 65 to 74 was nearly 2 times higher than the rate for those aged 75 to 84, and 3 times greater than the rate of family violence among seniors in the oldest age category (85 to 98) (Chart 4.3).

Lower rates of family violence among older seniors compared to their younger counterparts may be linked to differences in their living situations. Seniors 75 and older are less likely than younger seniors to live with family members, including spouses, and more likely than seniors under 75 to live alone or in an institutional setting (Turcotte and Schellenberg, 2007). Therefore, if a senior is at risk of being abused by a family member such as a spouse or an adult child, living alone or in an institutional setting (rather than with those family members) may mitigate the abusive situation.

Other explanations for lower rates of police-reported family violence among older seniors may be related to an inability to report abuse due to health-related reasons or social isolation. Research has identified conditions that can compromise functioning, such as chronic illness or dementia, as being more common among older seniors, increasing in each decade after age 75 (Welfel, Danzinger and Santoro, 2000). Such conditions may increase older seniors’ vulnerability and restrict their ability to report violence to authorities (Gannon, 2006).

Further, older seniors may have smaller social networks to rely on for assistance and fewer people to confide in outside their immediate family. Immediate family members (i.e., spouses, siblings, adult children and in-laws) represented a larger share of the social networks of seniors 75 and older, than for younger seniors. In addition, seniors aged 75 and over were more likely to report that they had no close friends compared to seniors under the age of 75 (Turcotte and Schellenberg, 2007).

Common assault the most frequent type of family-related violence committed against seniors

In general, common assault continues to be the most frequently reported violent offence against seniors, followed by uttering threats and robbery. When a violent offence was committed against a senior by a relative, in more than half (52%) of cases, the Criminal Code violation involved was common assault (Table 4.2). The least serious form of assault, common assault or level 1 assault involves pushing, slapping and punching, and does not involve weapons or serious injury. ⁵ 

Threats (19%) and major assault (16%) were the next most frequently reported offences perpetrated against seniors by a family member, but were each reported about a third as often as common assault.

The police-reported rate of common assault was higher for female seniors (28 per 100,000) compared to male seniors (21 per 100,000), while for other types of family-perpetrated violent crimes, rates for male and female seniors were more comparable (Table 4.2).

Over half of senior victims of family violence sustained no physical injury

As in previous years, police-reported data for 2007 show that over half of family violence (55%) incidents committed against seniors did not result in physical injury to the victim. However, minor physical injuries—those requiring first aid or no professional medical treatment—were sustained in more than one-third of incidents of family violence against seniors; this was the case for both senior men (37%) and women (35%). When family violence against older adults did result in physical injuries, the injuries were minor in 91% of cases (Table 4.3). ⁶ 

Among incidents of family violence against seniors that did result in physical harm, the injury was usually caused by the aggressor’s use of physical force (77%) rather than the use of a weapon (23%). ⁷  More than one-third (36%) of female senior victims of family violence and 32% of senior men sustained injuries due to physical force. Weapons used to cause injury were more common in violent offences committed against male seniors (12%) than in incidents involving female seniors (6%) (Table 4.4).

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