Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?

Bows, Hannah; Bromley, Paige; Walklate, Sandra

Abstract

This article reports data from interviews with 66 professionals working across safeguarding, health, criminal justice and specialist domestic abuse services exploring their views about older victims’ experiences of domestic abuse. The findings reveal that older victims, despite embodying many of the criteria of Christie’s ideal victim, are not ideal enough as they fail to conform to the stereotype of the young, female victim of intimate-partner abuse. Similarly, their perpetrators, whether older partners or younger sons/other family members, fall short of the necessary criteria to be seen as legitimate offenders—they are not quite ideal—meaning domestic abuse against older adults is frequently repackaged as a health issue, with significant implications for professional practice.

Citation

Bows, H., Bromley, P., & Walklate, S. (2024). Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?. The British Journal of Criminology: An International Review of Crime and Society, 64(3), 620 - 637. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azad057

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 1, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-05
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 5, 2023
• Journal: The British Journal of Criminology
• Print ISSN: 0007-0955
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3529
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 620 - 637
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azad057
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1757986