School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney, Australia.
Gerontologist. 2022 Feb 9;62(2):223-231. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnab068.
The police are often the first to attend domestic violence events in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, recording related details as structured information (e.g., date of the event, type of incident, premises type) and text narratives which contain important information (e.g., mental health status, abuse types) for victims and perpetrators. This study examined the characteristics of victims and persons of interest (POIs) suspected and/or charged with perpetrating a domestic violence-related crime in residential care facilities.
The study employed a text mining method that extracted key information from 700 police-recorded domestic violence events in NSW residential care facilities.
Victims were mostly female (65.4%) and older adults (median age 80.3). POIs were predominantly male (67.0%) and were younger than the victims (median age 57.0). While low rates of mental illnesses were recorded (29.1% in victims; 17.4% in POIs), "dementia" was the most common condition among POIs (55.7%) and victims (73.0%). "Physical abuse" was the most common abuse type (80.2%) with "bruising" the most common injury (36.8%). The most common relationship between perpetrator and victim was "carer" (76.6%).
These findings highlight the opportunity provided by police text-based data to offer insights into elder abuse within residential care facilities.
在澳大利亚新南威尔士州（NSW），警方通常是最先到场处理家庭暴力事件的人员，他们会记录相关详细信息，包括结构化信息（如事件日期、事件类型、场所类型）和包含受害者和犯罪嫌疑人重要信息的文本叙述（如心理健康状况、虐待类型）。本研究旨在调查在 NSW 住宅护理机构中涉嫌或被控犯有家庭暴力相关罪行的受害者和嫌疑人（POI）的特征。
本研究采用了一种文本挖掘方法，从 NSW 住宅护理机构的 700 起警方记录的家庭暴力事件中提取关键信息。
受害者主要为女性（65.4%）和老年人（中位数年龄 80.3 岁）。POI 主要为男性（67.0%），且比受害者年轻（中位数年龄 57.0 岁）。尽管记录的精神疾病发病率较低（受害者为 29.1%；POI 为 17.4%），但“痴呆”是 POI（55.7%）和受害者（73.0%）中最常见的疾病。“身体虐待”是最常见的虐待类型（80.2%），“瘀伤”是最常见的伤害（36.8%）。犯罪者与受害者之间最常见的关系是“护理者”（76.6%）。
这些发现强调了警方基于文本的数据提供了了解住宅护理机构内虐待老人问题的机会。
