THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN STATUTORY PENALTIES AND DOMESTIC ELDER ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS

Adult Protective Services statutes designate penalties for those who inflict abuse on elders. These penalties are either civil or criminal, with criminal penalties delineated as misdemeanors or felonies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship of criminal penalties for the infliction of abuse on the rates of reported, investigated, and substantiated domestic elder abuse for all states. The District of Columbia and forty-three states' APS-related statutes make elder abuse crimes felonies while thirty provide misdemeanors for some or all aspects of elder abuse. After taking into account demographic factors that influence investigation rates, states were found to have higher investigation rates if their statute made abuse a felony, had longer prison terms, tracked reports of abuse allegations, required reporting by professionals, and had more words in the definitions of abuse. After taking into account demographic factors that influence substantiation rates, states were found to have higher rates if the statute made abuse a felony, tracked reports of abuse allegations, and had more words in the definitions of abuse. States recognizing the seriousness of elder abuse by listing harsher penalties may convey this commitment to investigators, who are therefore more likely to investigate and substantiate abuse allegations.