Ch. 12 Special Problems, Weekly Blog Review:

Chapter twelve covers many topics including suicide, crimes against older people, fraud, elder and drug abuse, aging criminals, and promoting consumer education among the aging population. Many older adults cannot accept the fact that technology has advanced to prolong life and this combined with stress can cause mental and physical health problems. According Hillier and Barrow “Older depressed people tend to use health services at high rates, and indeed about 75 percent of older adults who died by suicide visited a physician within one month before their death” (Conwell, 2001, p. 319). Depression along with the stress of hospital and medical bills can cause stress on the individual causing them to take their own life. Fraud is another common thing among older adults because they are perceived to be vulnerable.  Although fraud has wide variation rates throughout all ages of individuals, “surveys show that a majority of victimizations of older people occur in or near their homes” (Hillier and Barrow, 2011). Older individuals are likely to be victimized in their homes from a theft including property, burglary, auto, and property whereas younger individuals are more likely to be victimized on the go.  The text explains that more and more people are being sentenced to prison and receiving longer sentences therefore there are older prisoners (Hillier and Barrow, 2011). Most of the older prisoners have been in prison for more than just one crime and they have grown old as a prisoner instead of committed their first crime and being sentenced a term. Elder individuals can be victims of crimes including fraud but they can also be the ones committing the crime.