Epidemiology of crimes against the elderly in Milan: Homicide abuse and sexual violence

The increase in life expectancy has inevitably led to an increase in "crimes" against the elderly. In the present review of the situation in Milan, the issue of peculiar problems associated with an increasing population of over-65 years of age has been considered from three different perspectives: deaths and homicide against the elderly: rape and sexual abuse: neglect (missing persons and unidentified bodies). The results of this study show that the elderly seem to have the highest rates of suicide with respect to other age categories and are the most frequent victims of traffic accidents (in particular where the victim is a pedestrian hit by a car). Nonetheless, although they are frequent victims of traffic accidents, other domestic accidents and suicide, they are not an increasing target for homicide. In Milan at least, statistics oscillate between 0 to 4 homicides per year among the over-65 year-olds and in most of these cases the homicide is perpetrated in the house, by friends or relatives, because of "humane" reasons or family partner conflicts. The study of almost 700 cases of abuse and rape have shown that elderly women are seldom at risk for sexual violence and rape: the very few cases documented occurred in their own house and frequently in association with another crime (robbery). Finally, the main "crime" against the elderly appears to be neglect. This appears indirectly through the relatively high number of unidentified elderly individuals found in the past years in the are of Milan and the similarly high number of elderly reported missing every month.