Analysis of the anomaly of violence against the elderly

Abstract

This article offers a bibliographical review about the social impact of violence against old people from the criminological perspective. In this work, the dialectic-materialistic approach of reality was used as an investigative method, making all the research easier at different stages. Both generalizing and systemizing valuations were prepared from the basis of the modelative and systematizing-structural approaches.

After having analyzed the concepts of violence, a definition was established out of a social and historical preparation; there are two principles serving to distinguish the features of violence features: one of them conceives it as a phenomenon of social nature; the other one is the theoretical-ecological postulate, consisting in the use of physical, psychological or emotional force, and this involves abuse of power as the only method serving to resolve the conflict.

Likewise, the behavior of violence against the elderly was examined in several countries: Spain, the United States, Peru, Brazil, Panama, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Cuba. In general terms, the incidence figures of this anomaly are alarming. In Cuba, as well, victimization against old people is growing. Psychological or emotional violence is seen as a fundamental manifestation. Although there are mechanisms dealing with denunciation, lack of action disclosure and systematicity permitting confrontation against the incidence of this social evil of violence affecting the risk group.