Content area
Full Text
In October 1976, the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape of the National Institute of Mental Health awarded a 1 -year grant to the Philadelphia Geriatric Center to prepare a report on the sexual assault of elderly women. In the report issuing from that grant, Davis and Brody (1979) observed that, "There was virtually no information about rape and older women, nor had specific programs been developed" (p. v). It is more remarkable that after 20 years of progress in identifying the precursors, course, and treatment of sexually aggressive and coercive behavior, currently nothing more is known about the sexual abuse of elderly individuals than in 1979 (Crowell & Burgess, 1996). Indeed, in the 1990s sexual assault was catapulted from relative obscurity to high profile in the legal and public health arenas (Goodman, Koss, Fitzgerald, Russo, & Keita, 1993; Koss, 1993; Prentky & Burgess, 2000). Despite the considerable attention given to the diversity and ubiquity of sexual assault, it is all the more noteworthy that one of the most vulnerable groups of victims - residents of nursing homes - remain in obscurity. Although the reasons for the failure to address the problem of sexual abuse of elderly individuals and nursing home residents are unclear, two explanations can be posited: the incomprehensibility, and hence rejection, of claims of sexual assault of nursing home residents and, perhaps most important, ageism, generalized negative attitudes, if not outright hostility, for older and cognitiveIy impaired people (Butler & Lewis, 1973).
All other vulnerable target populations for sexual assault (i.e., children, adolescents, developmentally delayed individuals, individuals with physical and/or mental impairments) have been the subject of varying degrees of clinical and empirical scrutiny. Like elderly individuals, when any of these populations reside in an institutional setting, the risk for abuse increases simply as a function of their dependence on staff for safety, protection, and care. Although there are no estimates of the incidence or prevalence of elder abuse in residential care, The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (E. Holder, personal communication, January 4, 2000) has confirmed that the agency receives an increasing number of reports of sexual abuse in nursing homes. In addition, an increasing number of these cases are being litigated. It is clear from...