s are physically abused and neglected by family members has been accompanied by a widespread assumption about elder abuse: that it is inflicted by well meaning individuals, often the adult children of victims, who are pushed over the edge by the stress of caring for a frail, dependent old person. Pillemer & Finkelhor (1989), argue against this assumption, reporting findings that relatively well-functioning elderly people were found to be the victims of abuse, inflicted by emotionally disturbed or violent family members. A typical abuser was found to be a person who depends on the victim for money, transportation, housing and household repairs. Elderly victims were no more disabled or dependent on their abusers than were comparison subjects on their relatives. Abusers, however, were much more likely than relatives in the comparison group to have been arrested, hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder, involved in violent behavior outside the family, or limited by a physical problem (Pillemer & Finkelhor, 1989). Thus generalizations
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