Statewide Analysis of Elder Abuse

The goals of the study are : (1) to create a comprehensive profile of reported domestic violence and family abuse of women over 50 using data from the State of Rhode Island for the year 2002; (2) to investigate the impact of the state's response to the initial incident on the likelihood of reabuse in the subsequent two years. The information to be collected includes characteristics of the victim and abuser and details of the key incident, law enforcement and prosecution response and reabuse rates over the subsequent two years. Data on the reported abuse will be obtained from the Rhode Island Domestic Violence Training and Monitoring Unit's database which is derived from all DV/Sexual Assault incident reports filed by local and state law enforcement for the year 2002. Criminal history and CJS outcomes will be obtained from the Rhode Island Court's automated case history file, CourtConnect. The likelihood of reabuse will be examined in relation to the state's responses to the initial abuse report/investigation including referral to the Department of Elder Affairs (DEA), arresting the suspect, prosecuting the case and any combination of these. CA/NCF