Abuse of the elderly happens all over the United States, and all such incidents are recorded and analyzed by the National Center on Elder Abuse. The task is not at all easy, since there is a blur between what qualifies as elderly abuse and what does not, and the situation is further worsened by the fact that each state has its own set of rules regarding this matter.

It is a huge cause for concern that most senior citizens are being abused by none other than their own grown-up children. The forms of elderly abuse are many, and include neglect, abandonment, beatings or other kinds of bodily harm, emotional abuse, sexual assault, scams and exploitation.

The first nationwide study on this social menace was conducted in 1996. Called the National Elder Abuse Incidence Study, it revealed that over 500,000 American citizens over the age of 60 were victims of elderly abuse only in that year. To make matters worse, statistics showed that 84 percent of those cases went unreported, and only 16 percent of those who suffered from elderly abuse has lodged a complaint with the authorities.

Even more shocking is the fact that the Senate Special Committee on Aging estimates that close to 5 million senior citizens suffer from elder abuse each year. The government states that elder abuse is a problem that is part of the Federal Older Americans Act, which allots financial assistance to the states so that they can provide services that relate to abuse of the elderly.

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