The following five indicators below account for the elderly population over the age of 65 who have gone through differnt types of abuse. The data shown is from the 2018 Adult Protective Services.
Physical abuse- Is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily contact.
Sexual abuse- Is any form of forced or unwanted sexual activity. The perpetrator of sexual abuse may use physical force, make threats or take advantage of a person unable to give consent.
Isolation- Failure to fulfill a caretaking obligation. This constitutes more than half of all reported cases of elder abuse. It can be intentional or unintentional, based on factors such as ignorance or denial that an elderly charge needs as much care as they do.
Abduction- The action or an instance of forcibly taking someone away against their will.
Psychological/Mental abuse- Is a form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Indicator 1 - Individual Allegations of Abuse Perpetrated by Others
Perpetrated_by_others_2018
After running a Hot Spot analysis on abuse perpetrated by others we can conclude that Southern California is a hot spot for this abuse. This analysis has highlighted that most Southern California counties have significant confidence intervals for this type of abuse. The confidence interval for this data ranges from 90-99% with an exception of San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo's data shows to be not significant in this analysis.
Perpetrated_by_others_2018
Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego counties have the most cases of this abuse. Los Angeles is host to the most cases with 3,404 cases. That is represented by the red region in the map to the left and in the legend below. San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego have between 500 and 1,500 cases respectively.
Most Southern California counties have between 500 and 1,500 cases.
Indicator 2 - Physical Abuse
Adult protective services 2017 hot spots
The Adult protective services is a system that provides in person reports of abuse on physically and mentally disabled adults, and the elderly who may be victims of abuse. In this map we have plotted a hotspot analysis for adult protective services for the year 2017 in California. A hotspot analysis is a spatial analysis tool that identifies clusters of spatial phenomena. The light red areas in Northern California indicate that there is significant lower Adult Protective Services cases. In the other hand Southern California is a hotspot for cases of elderly abuse. As one can see there is a darker shade of red in Southern California. Both Los Angeles and San Diego have the darkest shade of red which means they have had the biggest amount of cases in the year of 2017.
Adult protective services 2018 hot spots
The Adult Protective Services is a 24 hour service program created to investigate all reported at risk situations of individuals 65 years or older. In this map we have decided to run a hot spot analysis for Adult protective services(APS) cases in the year of 2018. A hotspot is an area that has higher concentration of events compared to the expected value given a random distribution of events. Right off the bat we noticed that there was a drastic decrease in cases compared to the previous year. Just like the previous map Los Angeles and San Diego had the most cases of elderly abuse. There was little to no cases in Northern California except for places like San Francisco and Sacramento which were hot zones for (APS) cases.
Property crime in in Los Angeles cold/hot spots
We ran a hot spot data analysis on crime in Los angles for the year of 2019. The red areas that are shaded in red are the hot spot areas. These are the areas where there have been the most cases of crime which as we can see are areas like San Fernando Valley. And in the areas shaded in blue are the cold spots which had the least amount of crime cases. places like Beverly Hills, Inglewood, Santa Monica, and East Los Angeles are all locations where there were a little amount of crime cases.
Indicator 3 - Sexual
In the following map we can visualize the where and who of many elders that suffer from sexual abuse. The small circle areas of the map are indicators of a cases between 0 and 15. The bigger circle represent cases 15 and up to 35 cases. One thing we can visualize from this map is the Northern California might have a bigger cluster of cases spread all around but the amount of cases is low. On the other hand we have Southern California and it shows the bigger circles meaning that more amounts of higher cases occur in this zone. Could it be because
ECON 3300_Sexual_Abuse_Eric_Trejo
Indicator 7 - Isolation
In this Map, Elderly Isolation is represented in California and also mostly impacted in the state of Virginia, city of Richmond. The blue indicator in California has the most In the second continent away from California, the red section highlighted are Elderly over the age of 65 to be Living Alone and is located within the park. The mid section in orange has the most Elderly Isolation boundaries in the map and is the average population for Elderly living alone.
ECON3300 Isolation FN final-Copy
Indicator 8 - Abduction
The following map indicates where elders have been abducted from throughout California. The smaller circles indicate a smaller percentage of abductions in that area, while the larger circles indicate a greater percentage of abductions. This data is used from Adult Protective Services and County. In this map we can tell that there are a lot of abductions in Fresno and the larger cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. We were able to identify the hot spots which have a hot spot of 99% confidence to no significance.
Econ3300_Abductions 2017-2018_G26(g)_T_Saxon_Andross
Indicator 9 - Psychological/Mental
Mental_Abuse_2018
In this map we have plotted a hotspot analysis for psychological/mental abuse that elderly Americans suffer in California. The light grey areas in Northern California represent cold spots, and the white regions represent statistically insignificant areas. We can conclude that Central and Northern California have significantly lower levels of psychological abuse. Furthermore, Southern California, is a hotspot for this abuse in 2018. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside top the list with the most cases of mental abuse. The previous year (2017) saw a similar amount of cases with only a slight increase in 2018.
Mental_Abuse_2018
Upon further inspection of Southern California, Los Angeles County saw the most cases of mental abuse as highlighted in the legend below with a total of 1,025. San Diego and Riverside counties have between 143 and 333 cases, making them host to the second most cases in Southern California. Kern and San Bernardino counties have the third most cases in Southern California with 42 to 143 cases. Finally, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Imperial counties have less than 42 cases respectively.
Conclusion
To Conclude, these maps are able to show the types of abuse that the elderly population face throughout California. These types of abuse include physical abuse, sexual abuse, isolation, abduction, and psychological/mental abuse. Each map indicates a different type of abuse and the total number of cases in that area. Some circles are big while other circles are smaller. The larger circles indicate a higher percentage of abuse while the smaller circles indicate a lower percentage. By looking at each individual map, we're able to conclude that a majority of abuse cases take place in larger and more populated areas throughout California.
Approximately 1 in 10 Americans aged 60+ have experienced some form of abuse. Each year it is estimated that 5 million elders are abused, and many of these cases go unreported. Adult Protective Services assist vulnerable and elder adults to stop and prevent abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Anyone can make a report about suspected abuse to the Hotline. Adult Abuse Hotline: (800) 222-8000. For more information on elderly abuse
Policy Recommendation
Our policy recommendations based on our findings through these maps is to primarily focus on reducing abuse in large over populated areas. From our maps we can summarize that Southern California is hot spot for most of the topics covered above. Subsidizing APS programs in Southern California counties can help in the fight against elderly abuse. Los Angeles for example, should be ground zero for this fight since they have higher rates of abuse. By subsidizing resources to in these certain counties we can raise awareness, fund more APS centers, and reduce abuse!
