Elder Abuse and the Cycle of Violence - Essay Example

ELDER ABUSE AND CYCLE OF VIOLENCE The age old crisis of old age abuse known as 'Elder abuse' is not a disease acquired but it is a deformity in the evolution of mankind. We have to go a long way to get it mended. We are now at the point of realization that elder abuse is something stinky and needs to be ridden off. Elder abuse is simply defined as physical and psychological mistreatment of elderly people. In most cases the abusers are the inmates of the family. The perpetrators are generally adult off springs and care givers. Civilization has dissipated a very small portion of this violence .B.D Perry (1997) ascribes a decrease in violent behavior to the increase in capacity of cortical structures of human brain which in turn is nurtured and developed by the sensory experiences. . We shall discuss about the elder abuse and the cycle of violence. We elucidate the violence first, cycle of violence next, and finally the elder abuse. About 250,000 years ago man descended to the earth with all the brutality of his ancestors. The latent violence in his mind is the root of the scare of elder abuse. Nations wage war among themselves; revolutionists resort to civil war for their claim. Terrorists sow the seeds of terror everywhere they go. Mafia dons and brigands live mainly on intimidation. The ether is filled with the non stop propagation of such violence related news and stories by media. Thus we inhale violence. Violence is an act of aggression in interpersonal interaction. The sense of self, perception of another's autonomy and identity are put into question by violence. It is a coercive mechanism to assert one's will over another, to prove or to feel a sense of power.1 The intergenerational relationship between adolescents and their parents are commonly thought to be sensitive and tense in modern days. Adolescent rebellion is construed as a normal process towards maturity in modern societies, unlike tribal groups in which the factor of maintaining authority by parents on their off springs is not at all found (Johnson, 1976). Violence is of two types; physical and mental. Physical violence may be ascribed to impulsive stimulants or behavioral belief system or due to intoxication or any other neuropsychiatry condition. Mental violence is simply due to perversion. Perpetrators who indulge in psychological abuse are normally the victims of child abuse. Abnormal occurrences such as encounter with terrorist activities in early child hood or adolescence make one pervert. The aggressive behavior2 in a man is related to his family circumstances too. Use of alcohol, illicit objects and weapons enhance the possibility of occurrence of family violence. Stress factor also determines the incidence of violence. This plays its role on the care givers. When the relationship between the care giver and the receiver is poor to begin with, then the care giver is susceptible to be abusive.. The enthusiasm and interest of an adult in nurturing his young off spring is naturally greater than his duty bound care giving to his parents who are older in age. This in turn buttresses the desire for independence3 among the old. Interfamilial differences and conflict occur when the adult care giver and the elders happen to meet some joint responsibilities such as shifting to the place of adult off springs' duty station, disposing off the wealth of the elders or partitioning of the elders' wealth. Elders are distraught4 when they are made dependent. Coming to the cycle of violence, we have to know a bit of child abuse. For, the "cycle of violence" hypothesis suggests that a child hood history of physical violence predisposes the survivor to violence in later years. To test this hypothesis Cathy(2001)examined the violent criminal behavior as the functional type of maltreatment experienced as a child. She found that physically abused children were the most likely violent compared to the neglected group and victims of sexual abuse who graded a lesser degree of violent. Many a researchers found that a cycle of violence has three parts in it; they are tension mounting phase, explosion phase, and calm/lull/honeymoon phase. The tension phase is the longest period where the victim is filled with anxiety trying to avoid violence on him/her. It is termed as 'walking on egg shells'. The perpetrator is also under tension of smashing the defense by the victim. Sticking on to prolonged verbal abuse is only to make the victim stop his defense. When the abused is no more able to stop the premeditated violence by the perpetrator, he or she slightly begins to show off repulsion to a very small extent. Enough. This is enough for the abuser to explode. He begins to bang. He uses all his techniques of violence on the abused. Battering, or any bodily assault, humiliating by harsh words, cheating to snatch of the wealth or money takes place at this hour of explosion phase. Next comes the calm phase, here the abused is in a state of confusion and pain. The perpetrator is completely calm since all his violent emotions are drained by the act of explosion or cheating. Some abusers feel guilty and remorse. They try to pacify the abused by gentle words and at the same time they are keen in fixing the blame on the abused himself/herself by telling that they were aroused by the abused. Since the abused also think in the same direction they get a little bit calm but unable to bear the pain inflicted on them. But denial on both sides (i.e.) victim and perpetrator is strong glue that binds them together. A victim denies the offence on him/her due to the fear of reprimand by the abuser again. An abuser denies out of fear of being caught and further punishments. As long as this denial persists between them it is impossible to break the cycle of violence. To land on our main area of elder abuse we shall fix the ways an elderly is subjected to harassment. Physical abuse, psychological abuse, material abuse and neglect are the main constituents of the violence meted out to the elderly people by the perpetrators. Dependency on the younger generation causes neglect, ill-treatment and various forms of violence against elderly people. Physical abuse is forced violence on elders causing bodily injuries, pain or impairment. The perpetrators usually are sons, daughters, grandchildren and acquaintances. Assaulting by intimate relations like spouses to gain power on the elderly comes under 'domestic violence'. Bruises, burns, fractures in the body of abused indicate the incidence of elder violence. Such physical assault causes also behavioral changes in the abused and abuser. An abused becomes unable to explain the cause of wounds and the abuser gives the reasons that are not reasonable. The perpetrators adopt a knack of bringing the patient, the abused elder person, to many clinics or hospitals or medical assistants for treatment so that they can prevent medical people from observing the technique employed in the abuse. Elders are abused sexually too. People who lack mental capacity to exercise their consent are usually subjected to such abuse as rape and molestation. Women are the most affected victims of this abuse and are more susceptible when they lack social support. Perpetrators in this type of abuse are certainly pervert adults, who lack sexual gratification normally with a peer age group person. Normally attendants of care services and paid caregivers indulge in sexual abuse of an elderly. Such perversion in adults combined with the fear of victims causes unrevealable damage to elderly women. In one-third of the cases sexually abusive acts on elderly were witnessed by others which confirms the perversion in non-abusers who happened to be mere spectators.(Ramsey-Klawsnik,1991) More than 50% of Nursing Home Residents die within a year of being victimized to sexual assault.(Burgess A Dowdel,2000) Family members like spouse also do this harm to the victims. Although a sexually abused hesitates to divulge the matter, it can be ascertained by the bruises around breasts or genital area, unexplained genital infections and torn, stained or bloody underclothes of the victims. Psychological abuse is creating an imbalance in the minds of the elderly people by willfully inflicting emotional or mental torment by threatening or humiliation. The perpetrators in this type of abuse are family members and caregivers and acquaintances. Victims of psychological abuse have sleeping problems. They begin to fawn on seeing the perpetrators. Psychologically abused elders exhibit depression and confusion often. Unusual behavior attributed to dementia, like biting, prevails in those victims. Women are more affected victims than men. This is because sex for women is something interwoven with their psyche unlike men for whom the physical aspect alone is predominant in sex. 89 per cent of women victims were subjected to verbal abuse causing stress and depression.(Charles P Mouton,2004) The abusers usually alienate the victims from their near relatives and friends, thereby subjecting them to a sort of social isolation. After making them defenseless, the perpetrators find it easy to over power the elders by physical assault or able to cheat for their wealth or valuables or money which the elders meticulously save for their day of last breath. Material abuse encompasses a variety of conduct. Taking money of the elders without their permission, forging their signatures, cheating them with false promises to drain their wealth and many other unlawful activities constitute this material abuse. Abusers in this type of elder abuse are family members, spouses, and caregivers. When family members are the abusers they fear that the older people will go sick or die without passing their 'rightful' inheritance to them. Out of this fear they begin to indulge in deception, trickery and dishonest acts. Isolated, lonely and especially mentally disabled victims are the targets of outside- the- family perpetrators. Many elders become targets to this type of abuse by miscreants because 1. Due to ageing elders do not realize the value of their assets. 2. Disabled elders become completely dependent on their helpers and are unlikely to take any action against the helpers if they indulge in activities detrimental to their well being. 3. Abusers assume that the elders would not survive long to contemplate any legal proceedings against the formers. 4. Advances in technology make finance managing a complicated job for the elders giving way to the cheaters. Occurrence of this type of abuse may be smelt from Unexplained withdrawals from bank. Unpaid bills and notices. Missing of belongings of the elders. Suspicious signature on the checks of the elders. Unknown faces to the elders becoming good friends of . them. Since the role of victims in this type of abuse is crucial to curb the abuse, the National Center on Elder Abuse launched 'victim witness programs' enlightening the abused elders of their role in aborting the moves by care giver abusers. (Nerenberg,2000) Neglect is the foremost painful thrust on elders. Right from the moment of birth to the point of death man needs only recognition. Throughout the life span man gets himself satisfied by the senses and assumes this as recognition since he interacts with other people for sensory fulfillment. If his nose does not function and becomes unable to smell fragrances, he does not care at all. If he becomes hearing-impaired he fears and gets it rectified by medical and other help from people and society. If dumbness over powers him, he begin to use other ways of communicating with people. Blindness irks him very much and he finds it difficult to interact with his fellows. Dependence originates here. Thus life becomes gloomy for this vision-impaired. During senility people need at least a shaking of hands or cuddle; otherwise they feel ostracized as 'untouchables'. Failure of the caregivers to fulfill their responsibility to provide necessary help to the aged people amounts to neglect. Such neglect may be intentional or out of illness, disability, stress, ignorance, lack of maturity or lack of resources. Abusers of intentional neglect are motivated by material and financial gain. There is one more aspect of abuse namely self-neglect. The abuser's parts in this type of abuse come under the psychological abuse itself. Constant alienation, humiliation and assault by perpetrators force the victims to indulge in self-neglect. Elders at this stage refuse food, water and medications. The act of perpetrators who force elders to this point of self-neglect have to be considered as a heinous crime, since victims of self-neglect are in the orbit of a death-pull. The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) at United States had conducted a NATIONAL ELDER ABUSE INCIDENCE STUDY and arrived at elaborate statistical information and details that about 550000 elders have been abused during 1996. This study confirmed the 'iceberg' theory5 of elder abuse. To unearth the entire data on elder abuse is really a Himalayan task. Now coming to the main question: If a person was a victim of child abuse will they also be a victim of elder abuse Chances of a victim of child abuse becoming a perpetrator in his adulthood are high. The chance of a child victim becoming a victim of elder abuse is very remote. If a boy witnesses the perpetration of his father on his grandpa, the boy may or may not become a victim of elder abuse in his senility. It depends upon many factors like interpersonal violence, early trauma and the gender rigidity (Lisak .D,1996) in his adolescence and adult hood. The gender rigidity increases the likelihood that abuse-generated emotions will be suppressed and converted into anger, a dynamic emotion which is likely to increase the propensity of aggressive action. Inequalities of power among two generations, that is adult care giver and elderly, also constitute a hidden source of conflict. Such intergenerational relationship varies with ethnicity, gender, education and residence in addition to ages of grand child and grand parent. Power differences and economic inequalities, many times, become the reason for intergenerational conflicts. Analysis of ethnographic reports of 60 non industrial societies by N.Foner6, in 1984, ascribes patricides by young adults to these intergenerational conflicts. A sixteen year old Pradeep Sharma7 is irked by the anti-male sentiments that he believes to have rooted in western culture. He points at the "Girl Power" program launched in 1997 by the Department of Health and Human Services in United States that helps young girls use their adolescence wisely and emerge as confident women and deplores that HHS had no such program for boys. Such intellectual retaliation on a web site by the boy shows that gender orientation in him is flexible and will prune his masculinity maintaining the trait of empathy, when his yearnings are heard. Victims of elder abuse are in the receiving end only. If the agony suffered by them makes them repent their past, it leads to the assumption that they were the abusers in their adult hood. The victims of child abuse are the perpetrators in their adult hood but all the elderly abused were not the perpetrators in their adult hood. The social and cultural environment in United States loosens the ties between the generations. The care offered by Government on elders through social service measures; legally freeing the off springs to look after their age old parents; increase of agencies to provide better services to elders; and above all, the complex and community responsibilities of middle-aged adults and the attitudinal differences8 experienced among the generations prompt elderly population to take care of themselves. (Hess.B and Joan,1978). Ties reinforced over many years among generations are not easily repudiated; further they are supported by compensation of care by children in lieu of the same received by them from their parents in their child hood and youth. Adults anticipating their own old age want to set an example in care giving to their age old parents.(Mutran, and Reitzes,1984) CONCLUSION The theory of 'cycle of violence' speaks much about its inbuilt phases and outlines the facts that (a) a child victim is prone to become an abuser in his adult hood and (b) an elder victim is ascertained to have been a perpetrator in his adult hood, thus converging both victim's ends at an adult abuser. The vicious cycle, therefore, becomes an intergenerational issue. Though researches on Elder Abuse are done scantily, most of the researchers conclude that intergenerational relationships and aspects related to the experiences over the age are crucial in assessment and alleviation. Intergenerational analyses are hence to be made in the light of the Truth that the Direction of Movement of Time is fixed. One can assume two roles, one as a victim of child abuse and the other as a perpetrator in adult hood; likewise an adult abuser is liable to become a victim of elder abuse. If one takes all the three roles - a rare likelihood-- (child victim, perpetrator and elder victim) it means the entire life span of the man is absolutely wretched. In the light of researches we come to conclude that a child victim can not be an elder victim. A recent news from Indo-Asian News Agency through Deccan Chronicle dated 22.112005 passes a ray of hope in challenging the age old crisis of old age abuse. Cindy Lustig at Washington University in St.Louis conducted a research using FMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to measure brain activity in young adults of age group 18-30 and older adults of age group 65 and above. She has found that older adults could activate more of the frontal cortex region of their brain in response to challenging tasks. When older generation becomes capable of self reliant the chances of younger adults abusing them would drastically be reduced. By changing the nature of the family in the fashion of mutual exchange of care--a task of generations-the cycle of violence can be broken and elder abuse brought to a halt. Reference list--- Burgess A Dowdel, E.Prentky.R, (Jun,2000) Sexual Abuse of Nursing Home Residents, Journal of Psychosocial Nursing,Vol 38, No.6 Charles P Mouton, Rebecca J Rodabough, Susan L.D.Rovi, Julie L Hunt, Melissa A Talamantes, Robert G Briszky, and Sandra K Burge (Apr,2004) Prevalance and 3-year incidence of abuse Among Post menopausal Women American, Journal of Public Health,94 605-612 Johnson, Marylin (1976) The Role of Perceived Parental Models, Expectations and Socializing Behaviors in the Self Expectations of Adolescents, from the U.S and West Germany. Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University. Lisak. D., Hopper .J, Song. P.(1996) "Factors in the Cycle of Violence: Gender Rigidity and Emotional Constriction Journal of Traumatic Stress,9: 721-743 Mutran, Elizabeth and Donald C. Reitzes,1984 "Intergenerational Support Activites and Wellbeing", American Sociological Review 49, pp117-130 Nerenberg. L (2000) Forgotten victims of Financial Crime and Abuse :Facing Challenge,Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 12(2):49-73 Perry, B.D. (1997) "Incubated in Terror": Neurodevelopmental Factors in the 'Cycle of Violence' in: Children, Youth and Violence: The Search for Solutions (J.Osofsky,Ed) Guilford Press, New York, pp124-148. Ramsey-Klawsnik, H. (1991):Elder Sexual Abuse: preliminary findings. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. Vol 3 No.3 Read More