The Age of Justice…

A new report, launched today, is calling for more to be done to raise awareness of crimes against older people in Wales and for action to be taken by organisations and agencies to prevent them from happening in the first place.

The report, “Age of Justice” is the result of an in-depth research project by equalities charity Diverse Cymru, which was commissioned by the Welsh Government.

Older people (aged 50+) throughout Wales were consulted through focus groups, one-to-one interviews and a survey. Key findings in the report reveal that:

• There is no one overall definition of age related crime but more than half of those that took part in the research identified scams, burglaries, neglect, anti-social behaviour, ‘mate’ crime, threats and verbal insults to particularly affect older people.

• 10% of people who completed the survey reported that they had been victims of age-related crimes and 45% knew of one or more people who had been a victim.

• Reasons given by people for not reporting crimes included: fear of making the situation worse; not being believed, understood, listened to or taken seriously; feeling guilty, embarrassed or ashamed.

The report, launched at a day of action in Cardiff Bay, says that poor information sharing and a lack of understanding and training all put older people at greater risk of becoming victims of age-related crime. It calls for police, social services, local authority departments, fire and rescue services, victim support, community cohesion coordinators and third sector organisations to work together to address the issues raised by the report and to provide training in older people’s issues across the board.

Martyn Jones, Diverse Cymru CEO, said “Age of Justice represented the ideal opportunity to further the cause of equality for a protected group who are often overlooked. We hope this will help to establish a framework for a fairer, kinder and more equal society in Wales.”

Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Sarah Rochira, said: “It is vital to understand the nature and causes of crimes against older people so that effective action can be taken to prevent them.

“I therefore welcome the findings of the Age of Justice report and expect that their recommendations will be carefully considered and acted upon without undue delay.”

An executive summary can be found at www.diversecymru.org.uk/ageofjustice with the full report to follow soon.