Connect Centre - Research Seminar Series 2019 / 2020

Traditionally, older people have been considered low risk for interpersonal violence and abuse, based upon national crime statistics drawn from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). As a consequence, research and policy has largely developed without this group in mind. However, the CSEW has excluded people aged 60 and over from the survey, meaning there has been no evidence to support the widely held belief that older people are low risk for victimisation. Criminological and victimological research has failed to address the gap left by the CSEW resulting in very little evidence. This paper presents the findings from the first (and currently only) national studies to examine sexual violence and domestic homicide of people aged 60 and over. The findings reveal that older women are victimised at significantly higher rates than older men. regardless of the gender of the victim, men are the offenders in the majority of cases. Other contextual findings are presented and implications for research, particularly how we develop criminological understandings of victimisation and offending among older populations, are considered.

Dr Hannah Bows is an Assistant Professor in Criminal Law at Durham Law School, Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA) and Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. Over the last six years her work has mainly focused on domestic and sexual violence and homicide against older people in the UK. She has recently been awarded a British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship to conduct a study with Greater Manchester Police and Northumbria Police to examine criminal justice responses and outcomes in cases involving older victims. Hannah is also Chair of Age UK Teesside and sits as a magistrate on the County Durham and Darlington bench. She is also the incoming Chair of the British Society of Criminology (BSC) Victims Network. You can follow her on twitter @Hannah Bows

Seminar is free. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

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