Law

Definitions of Homicide Victimization • Analyze homicide victimization and the criminal justice system’s response. Classifications of Homicide The vast majority of homicides are reported to the police making it, of all of the crimes committed, one of the easiest to track. Reporting is often done by a victim’s family or other community members who discover […]

Examine property crime and system responses. The most common forms of crime in the United States are property crimes, and yet they get little attention by the media compared to crimes like murder. The most commonly reported property crimes are burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson, which are considered part of the Part I

Laws That Protect Disabled Victims A number of laws discussed in prior modules also apply to people with disabilities, including the Violence Against Women Act, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and the Child Protection Act. In addition, parts of other laws not yet discussed apply to the disabled. Many broad nonvictimization laws, like

Special Population Victims • Assess mental and physical disabilities victimization and the system responses. Definitions According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2015) of the U.S. population 12 and older who were not institutionalized, 14 percent were disabled, and of those, 42 percent were elderly. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (2008),

Outcomes of APS Investigations If there is a case for abuse, the criminal justice system will follow its course of referral to the district attorney for the start of a case through the criminal system. Of course arresting the caregiver of someone who has physical and mental health issues is fraught with its own concerns:

Reporting Elder Abuse Elder abuse incidents are underreported. Image: Elderly hand. Authored by: unclelkt. Source: https://pixabay.com/en/hospice-wrinkled-hand-elderly-old-1794351/. License: CC-0 As discussed earlier, there is a significant lack of reporting of elder abuse in the United States. Adult Protective Services (APS), like CPS, is a special social service agency that looks into issues of abuse and neglect

Investigations and Outcomes Although CPS has a common end goal of keeping families together as much as possible, the investigative process can take several paths. A variety of factors go into the determination of what should happen during an investigation. According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, the following things occur during an investigation for child

Outline reporting and responding to elder and child abuse and neglect, including protection agencies, removal, and protections. Reporting Child Abuse Law enforcement is the primary way that the abuse and neglect of children become known to the authorities. When law enforcement becomes aware of an issue, the police as well as CPS become involved in

Laws Protecting Elder Abuse Victims According to the National Council on Aging, in almost 60 percent of the reported elder abuse and neglect incidents, the perpetrator is a family member, and two thirds were adult children or their spouses. Like with other types of domestic violence, the fact that the perpetrator is a family reduces

Statistics on Abuse and Neglect According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, around 10 percent of all elders are abused. The most common forms are verbal mistreatment, financial mistreatment, and physical mistreatment. The Office of Victims of Crime (2012) found that more than 90,000 persons over the age of 65 were the victims of