Take Back the Night Event – Hannan Scoop Article
By Vanessa Rorai
On Wednesday April 8th, 2015, I had the privilege of attending a Take Back the Night event. This event was created to raise awareness of sexual violence and empower men and women to stand up against it. This was my first time going to such event and it was very engaging, educational, and empowering. The guest speaker was Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy. She spoke about the terrible situation Wayne County was in regarding discovering thousands of untested rape kits, and the progress that has been made since. Many community agencies and organizations attended the event to hand out information about available services and resources for victims and survivors of sexual violence and/or domestic violence.
After looking over the services, there are unsurprisingly little resources, if any, directed to older adults. Most services are specific to children or generally directed to adult victims of domestic violence. Services offered to adults have no age limits. However, news reports prove that sexual violence is just as pertinent of an issue with older adults as other age groups.
An incident occurred in 2012 when a man suffering from dementia was reported to have killed his wife in Winsford, England (BBC, 2013). Also, a very recently reported incident occurred in early April of a man suffering from dementia killed his wife in New Jersey (Konstantinides, 2015). Both of these couple’s relationships had a history of domestic violence. Sexual violence among older adults is occurring, but there are unique characteristics among this population, such as health concerns, longer relationship histories, and generational differences. Clearly, there is a need of focus towards the older adult population exclusively for treatment and programs for victims/survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
References
BBC (2013, October 29). Hazel Bailey death: Husband jailed for walking stick killing.
BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england
merseyside-24728165
Konstantinides, A. (2015, April 6). 100-year-old dementia sufferer ‘murdered his sleeping
wife, 88, with an ax, then committed suicide with a knife’. DailyMail.com
News. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article
3028326/100-year-old-New-Jersey-man-allegedly-killed-sleeping-wife-ax
committed-suicide.html
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