Australians are once again mourning after the alleged murders of three women in New South Wales over the weekend. With two of the victims being 70 and 90 years old, questions are being asked about the safety of older people.
Research has long established that older people are less likely to be victims of crime than younger people, with two notable exceptions: fraud, and abuse by people known to them.
But why are older Australians so vulnerable to certain types of crime, have rates changed over time, and what can we do about it?
Which crimes most affect older people?
Australia has been experiencing a declining overall crime rate for decades. But one of the most vulnerable populations is often overlooked: older people.
We might think the majority of crime experienced by elderly people would be financial scams. However, evidence shows they are victimised at similar rates as other age groups, despite losing more money.
Adults 65 and over account for about 26.5% of losses reported to Scamwatch, while only accounting for about 17% of the population.
The largest single source of data on the abuse of older Australians is the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study, run by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
In the past year, it found 14.8% of people aged 65+ had experienced abuse.
Types of abuse varied. This proportion of people aged 65+ who experienced abuse was made up of those who had experienced psychological abuse (11.7%), neglect (2.9%), financial abuse (2.1%), physical abuse (1.8%) and sexual abuse (1.0%).
For all abuse types, around half the perpetrators were family members, but this increased to 64% for financial abuse. This adds another layer of complexity when it comes to reporting.
There were other compounding factors increasing the likelihood of becoming a victim: where the person was single or separated, renting, or in poor physical or mental health. People on lower incomes were also more likely to be victims of abuse.
Many reported suffering multiple forms of abuse simultaneously.
Has it become worse over time?
While total scam losses have generally lessened over time, the 65+ age group were the only group whose total scam losses rose in 2023, the last year data is available, compared with previous years.
General rates of people experiencing credit card fraud have increased from 5.9% in 2014–15, to 10.4% in 2024–25, but older Australians have been less affected than younger age groups.
It’s hard to know how family violence and abuse has changed over time as no baseline exists. The 2021 National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study was the first of its kind in Australia.
But in Queensland, for example, police recorded significant increases in reported abuse of older people between 2008–09 and 2020–21. Reports were up by 76% for First Nations people and 97.7% for non-Indigenous people.
Applications for protection orders from the court involving an older aggrieved person also increased over the same period.
While this dramatic change is concerning, it is important to consider these findings could suggest an increase in reporting and policing of abuse, not necessarily an increase in occurrence rates.
Under-reporting is likely
Crimes against elder Australians are very likely to be under-reported as many victims stay silent – comprising what criminologists refer to as the “dark figure of crime” – though few studies compare generations directly.
In one prevalence study, only one in three victims of elder abuse sought help from anybody, with only 17% of those reporting the abuse to the police.
Of those who experienced financial abuse, 52% stayed silent, while 39% of emotional abuse victims did not make a report to anyone as they did not want the perpetrator to get into trouble.
Neglect and sexual abuse were only reported 20% and 24% of the time, respectively.
Elderly people disclose feelings of shame and embarrassment in reporting experiences of abuse. Victims of fraud in particular reported feeling foolish and fearing judgement if they reported it.
A further barrier to reporting abuse is the parent-child bond, with victims citing feelings of obligation to adult children or prioritising help for perpetrators of the abuse.
What about family violence?
Domestic and family violence can have very significant impacts on older victims, and can be fatal. This past weekend saw the deaths of a 90-year-old woman, allegedly murdered by her grandson, and a 70-year-old woman allegedly murdered by a man known to her.
While specifics are currently unknown and the allegations have not been tested in court, the cases shine a light on a population that is inherently vulnerable.
Abuse of older Australians by known parties generally falls into two categories: intimate partner violence and family violence. The latest data available suggest rates of intimate partner violence appear to be lower for older women than for younger women.
More common for older people is family violence, with national data showing sons and daughters combined are the most common perpetrators of abuse at 18%, well ahead of partners and spouses at around 10%.
This confirms it’s family, and not partners, that is the largest source of abuse for older people.
Older women face unique barriers to accessing help when being abused. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, among hospitalisations of people aged 65+ in the context of domestic and family violence, the rate for cases involving family members was nine per 100,000, which is much higher than the rate involving an intimate partner (five).
The same data show 21% of older women accessing specialist homelessness services had experienced domestic and family violence, compared to 4.8% of older men.
What needs to happen?
It’s clear we don’t have the whole picture when it comes to abuse of older people.
We need to understand the scope of the current problem, beginning with repeating the National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study from 2021 and including in-care residents (which accounts for more than 200,000 people) .
Governments need to invest in making more alternative reporting avenues available – not just police – to make reporting safer and easier. This should include GPs, aged care workers and disability support workers to screen for abuse, as well as banks where fraud victims seek support.
And while domestic violence is not specific to older people, they do have particular risks and need different supports.
Currently the majority of services are built around younger couples as those we consider most at risk, however this means we may miss what older people experience – particularly abuse by adult children.
This means we need more specialised family violence services for older Australians, to support victims as well as provide additional mental health and violence prevention programs for perpetrators.
The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.
