Criminal Victimisation of the Elderly: Have rates of crime against the elderly changed relative to overall crime rates?

Despite the increasing profile and reliance upon victimisation surveys to map crime trends, some of society ís demographic receive little attention. The elderly are one such group. They have received little attention due to the traditional notion that they suffer low levels of victimisation. This study challenges these long-held beliefs and focuses upon the criminal victimisation of the elderly, in order to assess if crime rates against them have changed relative to the overall crime rate. A secondary analysis was conducted on the 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001 British Crime Surveys in order to chart both the proportion and rate of criminal victimisation experienced by the elderly. The results that were produced report a number of differences between the overall crime rate and that experienced by the elderly. The victimisation rates show that the elderly have sustained a relatively steady amount of victimisation in comparison to the whole population, which fluctuates dramatically over the sweeps analysed. The peak in elderly crime rate also occurred two years later than that of the whole population. Furthermore, the elderly were found to suffer a disproportionate amount of property crime, compared to motor vehicle crime which is the largest rate for the whole population. The proportion of crime suffered by the elderly is also increasing slightly, which does not follow the trend set by younger victims. Overall, this study demonstrates that the criminal victimisation of the elderly has changed over time. This provides further impetus to continue research in this area.