Macolini R M
Law/Psychology Program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 1995 Summer;13(3):349-63. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2370130304.
Elder abuse has become the most recently "discovered" form of intrafamilial violence. Most states have enacted elder abuse statutes or have amended their adult protection acts to specify the elderly. A majority of jurisdictions have included mandatory reporting requirements within their statutes. Commentary has been fiercely opposed to mandatory reporting for a variety of reasons. Compelled reporting does not appear to increase the number of reports filed, while enforcement of the schemes depletes much of the funds devoted to elder abuse. Definitions of elder abuse are contradictory and vague. Mandatory reporting requirements suggest that legislators believe elders are unable to determine whether reporting is in their own best interests and thus is an ageist response to the problem of elder abuse. Finally, few services are available to families in which elder abuse has been verified and even fewer program evaluations have been performed to assess these services. Mandatory reporting to identify elder abuse is not appropriate in the absence of programs found to be helpful.
虐待老年人已成为最近“被发现”的一种家庭内部暴力形式。大多数州已颁布虐待老年人法规，或修订了其成人保护法以明确针对老年人的规定。大多数司法管辖区在其法规中纳入了强制报告要求。评论界出于各种原因强烈反对强制报告。强制报告似乎并没有增加提交的报告数量，而这些计划的执行耗尽了大量用于虐待老年人问题的资金。虐待老年人的定义相互矛盾且模糊不清。强制报告要求表明立法者认为老年人无法确定报告是否符合他们自身的最大利益，因此这是对虐待老年人问题的一种年龄歧视性回应。最后，对于已证实存在虐待老年人情况的家庭，几乎没有可用的服务，而且对这些服务进行评估的项目评价更少。在没有被证明有用的项目的情况下，强制报告以识别虐待老年人的情况是不合适的。
