Sexual Violence and Seniors
From the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College (Burgess) and Empire State College, State University of New York (Morgenbesser)
Contact author: Ann Wolbert Burgess, RN, DNSc, CS, Professor of Psychiatric Nursing, Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. E-mail: burges{at}bc.edu.
Although sexual violence against women has received increasing attention over the past decades, the sexual assault of the elderly has not been as well addressed. One group, however, brings news of these cases to us weekly, if not daily. Print media (and the Internet) report on these cases and the crises and trauma that follow for the victims and their families. For purposes of this article we reviewed newspaper, LexisNexis, and PubMed databases from 1995 to 2004. This forensic mental health article seeks to raise clinicians' awareness and sensitivity to the plight of the elder rape victim by illustrating facts with documented cases and offering suggestions for brief and crisis-oriented intervention.
KEY WORDS: sexual violence, elderly victims, sexual assault, physical trauma, rape trauma syndrome, forensic services, evidence collection, brief therapy