Elder Abuse by Scammers and Family Members [Study]

Elder abuse is something that detracts from our society and it an act should never be normalized or accepted as appropriate. There are those outside our society that do this and we know their motivations. However, some of the biggest abuse is by people within the elder's family. A study conducted at University of Southern California found that 48% of abuse of the elderly was by family and 61.8% was for financial reasons. 

Study: Financial abuse of older adults by family members more common than scams by strangers

I'm saddened that we still do this in our society and we do not enforce protection for elderly and sick as much as we should. Because of this lax enforcement we are encouraging others to engage in these behaviors.  

As a hypothetical example for learning purposes only an elderly person who was diagnosed with cancer and dementia was exploited financially by family members. They kept the illness secret, manipulated them and siphoned off the wealth. The perpetrators also engaged in manipulation and threats of violence against those with questions in order to ensure the issues stayed quiet. This was acceptable because of their close connection with a number of officials who were suppose to enforce these laws but felt compelled to protect their social networks. A timeline of illness, bank accounts and behaviors could easily be constructed but its not considered important because of subjective use of laws. The perpetrators were given a free pass to continue forward with their ill gotten gains. A type of lawlessness!

Because these things still happen and we do not always protect the elderly we should consider the long-term ramifications of not protecting our most vulnerable or having different laws for different people. Some behaviors are shameful and normalized as acceptable depending on who is doing it and who it is against. To me, anyone who intentionally takes advantage of the sick and dying should be held to account. Yet, that wisdom is quickly discounted when things like race and religion skew the decision making process. Moral authority is lost so we should expect others to learn and do the same if we can't enforce our laws against the in-crowd.