Remaining silent about abuse against the elderly “does not make us any better than the perpetrator”, a student told a seminar on family violence held at the University yesterday.
“We all have an elderly relative or know an elderly person, so we all can do something to help stop elderly abuse,” said Denise Griscti, a first-year psychology and sociology student.
Such abuse, dubbed the new 21st century crime, could be decreased through three means: law enforcement, asking for help and “educating not only ourselves but also the elderly”.
Ms Griscti compared these means to gears: useless on their own but able to set a machine in motion if used together.
She was among a group of students who presented papers on violence in the family during the seminar organised by senior lecturer Frances Camilleri-Cassar, who urged policymakers to take up the students’ recommendations.
Labour MP Carmelo Abela, who addressed the seminar before the presentations, said abuse was of great concern not just to victims but also to society at large. Assistance must be given to victim and abuser and support must be provided immediately to minimise long-term problems.
Removing his politician’s hat and speaking as a parent, he expressed concern that when schoolchildren were taught about their rights, not enough emphasis was laid on their obligations.
“We should always raise rights and obligations in the same sentence. Abuse at home might arise from a relationship where children shout back at parents, for example,” he said.
Alternattiva Demokratika spokesman Arnold Cassola reiterated the importance of immediate support for violent perpetrators so that they would realise their abuse was detrimental to society.
Support agency Appoġġ and the Commission on Domestic Violence deserved more financial and human resources.
The police force, he added, should also have a section where officers were psychologically and socially trained to deal with abuse cases.
During the two-hour seminar, the students spoke about different forms of abuse prevalent in society, which Jacqueline Azzopardi, deputy dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, described as “very common but latent crimes”.
“Unfortunately, I have come across cases I’d rather not have heard of. One common factor prevalent in domestic abuse is a feeling of betrayal: you never expect to get hurt by the ones you love.
“So some of the victims tend to take long to report abuse or refrain from reporting it at all. They are caught in a dilemma: how can you fight and stand up to the ones you love?”
Victims found it more difficult to report abuse when there were children involved, according to a group of students.
Another group, which spoke about stalking, said one thing that came to mind when thinking about this form of abuse was Facebook and social networks, which made stalking easier through real-time tracing application.
The common perception was that such harassment involved a person physically following another person. However, stalking included anonymous e-mails, gifts, texts and unwanted phone calls.
Abuse in numbers
•Out of the 95,000 elderly in Malta, between 3,000 and 6,000 could be victims of abuse.
•Emotional abuse accounts for one third of cases among elderly, while neglect amounts to 49 per cent.
•One in five women in Europe is affected by domestic violence.
•Victims withdraw 75 per cent of domestic violence cases.
•In 2010, out of 1,154 women interviewed by the Commission for Domestic Violence, 140 experienced physical violence by their intimate partners.
•A quarter of these were choked or burnt.
•23 per cent of the whole sample were emotionally abused and nine per cent were sexually abused.
•54 per cent of those who experienced physical violence by an intimate partner never sought help.
•Of those who did seek help, 25 per cent went to the police while others went to lawyers, civil courts, hospitals or priests.