Erica Smith

June 13, 2012    NCJ 238546

Presents statistics about violent victimization of persons age 65 or older reported by law enforcement agencies into the FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System from 2005 to 2009. The report describes characteristics of known violent victimizations perpetrated against the elderly in Michigan over the 5-year period, including location and time of day the violence occurred, involvement of weapons, victim-offender relationships, and the percentage of reported violent victimizations of the elderly that resulted in an arrest. It also compares patterns of elder victimization with patterns of victimization of younger persons. Population-based rates of violent victimization are also presented.

Highlights include the following:

• Half (49.5%) of violent victimizations of the elderly known to law enforcement in Michigan involved serious violence— murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnapping.
• More than a third of violent victimizations of elderly women (37.8%) involved the victim's child or grandchild, compared to less than a quarter of victimizations of elderly men (22.5%).
• The rate of reported violence against elderly men (247.7 per 100,000 males age 65 or older) was 1.4 times higher than the rate for elderly women (172.9 per 100,000 women age 65 or older).

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