Understanding Elder Abuse – New Directions for Developing Theories of Elder Abuse Occurring in Domestic Settings

This paper reports the findings of two studies funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in an effort to generate theory-based explanations of what causes elder abuse and how to best respond to it. The theoretical directions suggested in this paper are intended to spur the critique of existing theories and facilitate the development of new theories that will enhance our understanding of elder abuse.