Ageing, Crime and Society

Edited by Azrini Wahidin and Maureen Cain
Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2006

When I commenced to read the Foreward to Ageing, Crime and Society, I was quickly concerned that Lord Ramsbotham’s venting about the recent troubled, politically driven changes in prison oversight within the UK didn’t bode well for an objective education about the intersection of crime and older age.  Fortunately, my conclusion after having read the book had changed for the better. 

Up to now, the field of criminology has failed to address aging as a social process, viewing ageing itself as a socially produced category.   A persuasive argument is made that the criminological community has yet to challenge the assignment of a deviant, outsider status to the unyoung. One of the more pertinent chapters in this book, particularly for the audience of American criminologists, is Chapter 2, “Rethinking Criminology: The Case of Ageing Studies.”  Therein, Powell and Wahidin succinctly describe the extant work on ageing found within gerotological theory, political economics, feminist theory and postmodernist thought.  They contend that this should incite and inform a criminological focus upon understanding age, crime, and society.

A key, general contribution that this book makes to the literature is to point out, in several areas, how the nexus of crime and age is different for the “unyoung” than for their younger counterparts.  A strength of Chapter 4, “Crime and the Older Person: A Research Agenda,” (Phillips) is its particular emphasis upon ageing within prisons, with a challenge to the academic community, “….. to separate the study of crime and old age from crime and the general population and considering age as the key variable in research.”  (page 68). As an example, imprisoned elder women offenders are routinely abused and neglected in a system designed for young, able-bodied men.  

A moving description of elder abuse and neglect in nursing homes, based upon the verbal aggression, physical restraint, psycho-social neglect and other forms of harm against the institutionalized elderly is found in Chapter 5, “’As if I just didn’t exist’—elder abuse and neglect in nursing homes.”  In this same vein, in Chapter 6, “The realities of elder abuse,” a call is made for (specialized) training for professionals of all types who interact with potential victims, including providers, inspectors, lawyers, judges, police and investigators.  Such training should serve to enable older people to gain access to their legal and civil rights as well as heighten the sensitivity and responsiveness of this wide range of would-be witnesses to elder abuse.

Other chapters in the book serve to both further educate the reader about the substance of the issue, but also the variety of research studies being presently conducted.  These include Chapter 7 (Lister and Wall), “Deconstructing distraction burglary: an ageist offence?” Chapter 8 (Burnett), “Reassuring older people in relation to fear of crime,” and Manthorpe’s Chapter 9, “Local responses to elder abuse: building effective prevention strategies.” 

In Chapter 11, “No problems—old and quiet’: imprisonment in later life,” Wahidin describes research of persons age 50 and older in the prison systems of both the UK and US.  She repeats the theme of several of the other contributors to this volume that gerontologists and criminologists can, and should, work effectively to provide a greater sensitivity to the challenges faced by older inmates by placing them and their needs in the context of ageing in general.

In “’Unregarded age in corners thrown’: an answer to the issues of healthcare for older persons,” (Chapter 12) Jacques shares her past  experience as head of healthcare within a correctional setting as evidence that appropriate and adequate healthcare for elderly prisoners can be achieved.  This includes a summative list of specific staffing and procedural recommendations that may serve as a model for others.  Additional recommendations for a unique focus upon the aged inmate during and following incarceration are submitted by Eastman in the concluding chapter of the book.  

I recommend Ageing, Crime and Society, particularly for those who want to be inspired by the prospect of a societal shift in thinking about the unyoung.  The marriage of the intellectual tradition of criminologists with the experiential depth of social gerontologists is likely to be one of the best ways for this to become a reality.