Fear of crime amongst elders in India
Abstract
Purpose
Crime against elderly people is a matter of grave concern in contemporary India. Today, they are being attacked with grievous harm, murder, and abusive behaviour by known and unknown persons. These cases have certainly had a negative impact on their way of life and sense of well-being. Consequently, fear of crime is being recognised as an emerging social problem among the elderly population in India. The purpose of this paper is to examine different types of crime that are being committed against the elderly, leading to a fear of crime. And, to identify the victim offender relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed method approach has been applied in this paper. This study has been designed as an exploratory lead-in to a planned wider study. It examines the factors shaping the victimisation experience of the elderly. The study has been conducted from October 2012 to January 2013 on a sample of 220 elderly people living in both rural and urban areas of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.
Findings
The findings suggest that emotional crime is a major problem among the elderly and more prevalent than crime against the body and property. The study has also found that elderly people have a fear of crime in their own houses due to victimisation.
Originality/value
This is an original paper, which is based on the experiences of elderly people living in Indian society and discussed the impact of prior victimisation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India which has provided them fellowship because this study would not have been possible without financial support. The authors are also grateful to the respondents, who gave their precious time in conducting the field survey.
Citation
Patel, A.B. and Mishra, A.J. (2016), "Fear of crime amongst elders in India", Working with Older People, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/WWOP-07-2015-0011
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited