Elder Abuse: Expert and Public Perspectives on Its Meaning

The purpose of this study was to gain greater precision in the classification and definition of elder abuse by comparing the perspectives of the general public to that of a panel of elder mistreatment experts. Personal interviews were conducted with 944 randomly selected adults using two scales developed from the expert's taxonomy and definition of elder abuse. Although there was a high degree of agreement between the public and the experts, there were also some areas of disagreement. These findings are the basis for the refinement of the expert panel's taxonomy and definition of elder abuse.