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82 St. John's L. Rev. 289 (2008)
The Not-So-Golden Years: Power of Attorney, Elder Abuse, and Why Our Laws Are Failing a Vulnerable Population

handle is hein.journals/stjohn82 and id is 293 raw text is: NOTES THE NOT-SO-GOLDEN YEARS: POWER OF ATTORNEY, ELDER ABUSE, AND WHY OUR LAWS ARE FAILING A VULNERABLE POPULATION JANE A. BLACKt Note to Retirees: Beware the Family' INTRODUCTION Abuse of the elderly is an escalating problem, due in part to the rising number of elderly people.2 Like child abuse, exploitation of the elderly is difficult to identify and prosecute.3 As a demographic, the elderly share characteristics that make them particularly susceptible to abuse.4 The elder population, for example, is largely plagued by impaired hearing and vision, slowed motor and mental responses, decreased coordination, t J.D. Candidate, 2008, St. John's University School of Law; B.A., 2004, The George Washington University. This Note is written in loving memory of my great uncle, Jacob Bookstein. 1 Jeff D. Opdyke, Intimate Betrayal: When the Elderly Are Robbed by Their Family Members, WALL ST. J., Aug. 30, 2006, at D1. 2 See Boyce v. Fernandes, 77 F.3d 946, 948 (7th Cir. 1996); see also In re Marshall, No. 500095, 2006 WL 2546192, at *5 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Aug. 29, 2006) ([Elder abuse] is a matter of increasingly public concern as the demographics promise a greater percentage of older Americans in the next thirty years.); Jane Gross, New Techniques Used to Fight Elder Abuse, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, Oct. 1, 2006, at A7 (stating that the fastest growing segment of the American population are those who are 85 years of age and older); Mary Laney, Many Steps Can Be Taken to Stop Abuse of the Elderly, CHI. SUN-TIMEs, Aug. 21, 2006, at 35 (Through life-sustaining medical procedures, new medicines and better health care, people are living longer than ever before.). 3 See Boyce, 77 F.3d at 948; see also Laney, supra note 2 (reminding that, like child abuse, elder abuse is committed against those least able to defend themselves [and] is often a hidden probem). 4 Robert A. Polisky, Criminalizing Physical and Emotional Elder Abuse, 3 ELDER L.J. 377, 379 (1995).