1. Introduction

Canada’s population is aging, with a growing number of seniorsFootnote 3  representing an increasingly larger share of the country’s demographic makeup. According to the 2021 Census, there are now over 7 million people aged 65 and older in Canada, representing approximately one-fifth (19%) of the total population. By 2060, one-in-four people in Canada could be seniors.Footnote 4

Alongside growing numbers of seniors, the rate of violence against seniors also continues to rise.Footnote 5 Segments of the senior population are at increased risk of experiencing abuse, such as those living in institutional settings (e.g., long-term care homes, prisons), those who are socially isolated, those with cognitive and physical impairments, and those who are dependent on others for care.Footnote 6 The consequences of abuse include the decline of mental or physical health, poor quality of life, hospitalization, nursing home placement, and even premature mortality.Footnote 7 As a result, eliminating abuse and neglect of and violence against older persons (hereafter referred to as “senior abuse”)Footnote 8 is an increasing urgent priority in Canada and worldwide.

Though numerous definitions are currently used in Canada to identify senior abuse, the Toronto Declaration of 2002 on the Global Prevention of Elder Abuse remains a key reference for many stakeholders,Footnote 9 which defines senior abuse as: “a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person.”Footnote 10

Senior abuse can include physical abuse such as assault, financial abuse such as fraud, psychological or emotional abuse such as threats and harassment, and sexual assault. It can also include mental cruelty, irresponsible medication practices (e.g., overmedication, withholding medication), humiliation, intimidation, censoring mail, invasion of privacy, denial of access to visitors, violation of human rights, neglect, and spiritual, religious or cultural forms of abuse.Footnote 11

In Canada, provincial, territorial and federal governments share constitutional responsibility in the area of senior abuse. Certain forms of abuse fall under the jurisdiction of provinces and territories through their respective protection, guardianship and family violence laws.Footnote 12 Others are captured in the Criminal Code such as assault under section 266, fraud under section 380, and failing without lawful excuse to perform the duty of persons to provide necessaries of life under section 215.Footnote 13 The Criminal Code also includes a provision under section 718.2, requiring the court to consider any relevant mitigating or aggravating factors related to the offence or offender in the sentencing process. This includes: an offence motivated by age-based bias, prejudice or hate; an offence that impacted the victim significantly considering their age; and that the offender, in committing the offence, abused a position of trust or authority in relation to the victim.

Senior abuse is a phenomenon, like sexual assault and intimate partner violence, that is under-reported due to the complex dynamics and vulnerabilities involved, and because of the methodological limitations of national prevalence studies, which exclude some relevant contexts (e.g., First Nations living on reserves, older persons living in long-term care facilities).Footnote 14

In addition to being under-reported more generally, senior abuse is rarely brought to the attention of police, and if it is, rarely results in charges being laid or processed through the court system.Footnote 15 To address the challenges of under-reporting, some police services across the country have adopted mandatory police training to identify senior abuse and created specialized senior abuse units.Footnote 16 For example, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) created an Elder Abuse Section in 2005, one of the first police forces in Canada to do so.

In 2011, Justice Canada conducted a case study on the OPS Elder Abuse Section, which involved reviewing case files from the inception of the section in 2005 until 2010.Footnote 17 The study report, Empirical Examination of Elder Abuse: A review of files from the Elder Abuse Section of the Ottawa Police Service (2013), recommended that conducting case studies on other police services with a specialized senior abuse unit would be valuable to further the knowledge and understanding of the responses to senior abuse.

1.1 Purpose of the study

This study examined the Edmonton Police Service’s data collection practices and responses to senior abuse. The study was modeled after Justice Canada’s case study on the OPS Elder Abuse Section.Footnote 18 The study was guided by the following research questions: