The role of social disorganization theory in explaining elder abuse and neglect

This study presents an overview of official elder abuse data for US states and is the first to assess county-level predictors of elder abuse and neglect through the lens of social disorganization theory. Five years of official elder abuse and neglect, violent crime, and property crime data from three midwestern states, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri, were aggregated and studied to determine whether the same factors that predict violent and property crime are useful for understanding variation in elder abuse. Results indicate concentrated disadvantage is a consistent explanatory variable, and variables measuring characteristics of the entire county population are better for modeling elder abuse counts than variables measuring characteristics of the elderly population. These findings indicate partial support for social disorganization theory and suggest policies developed to reduce crime by lessening concentrated disadvantage may have benefits for reducing elder abuse prevalence.