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Schedule:
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Marquis BR 6, ML 2 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)
* noted as presenting author
Background and Purpose: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) affects millions of individuals all around the world, despite their gender, sex, age, cultural background, and religion. However, research has mainly focused on IPV victimization among women of reproductive age, and it still goes unrecognized among older adults, while it is more likely to be labeled as elder abuse due to barriers to care, shame, and lack of awareness by older adults to report and professionals on what to look for in different settings. This study aims to examine the association between IPV offenses and age groups in the state of Missouri from agencies’ reports,.
Methods: NIBRS Domestic Violence data collected by the Missouri State Highway Patrol through agencies’ reports of all ages across the state will be used to explore the different demographics of IPV-related incidents in the state of Missouri (n=87,314). Victim’s age was coded into four categories for analysis’ purposes and to capture the prevalence in different phases in life: 0-17, 18-39, 40-64, and 65+ years old. The Offense Type variable was coded into the categories of “Aggravated Assault”, “Intimidation”, “Rape”, and “Simple Assault”, and the rest of the offenses were labeled as “Other” due to their frequence. A chi-square test was conducted to examine whether there is a significant association between offense type and age groups. Finally, a multinomial logistic regression model was used to predict the likeness of an IPV offense taking place based on Offense Type, while controlling for victim’s sociodemographic information, year, and location.
Results: IPV-related offenses among older adults accounted for only 0.82% of all the offenses in Missouri when compared to other age groups. The majority of victims were White (60%), not Hispanic/Latino (87%), and females (76%). Simple assault accounted for the most common of IPV offense overall, and for older adults specifically (67.41% and 69.68% respectively). The regression model accounted only for 0.02% of the variance in IPV offenses. Results showed that for all the IPV offenses, older adults were not significantly more likely to be victimized compared to younger groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study match the results of similar studies when studying the prevalence and the victimization of older adults regarding IPV. However, the aging population is expected to increase significantly within the next few decades. Additionally, considering that there are multiple barriers to reporting and identifying IPV within this population, as well as lack of standard protocols, practices, and trainings available specifically for identification of IPV victimization among older adults, research and practice should continue advocating for the importance of this issue.
Methods: NIBRS Domestic Violence data collected by the Missouri State Highway Patrol through agencies’ reports of all ages across the state will be used to explore the different demographics of IPV-related incidents in the state of Missouri (n=87,314). Victim’s age was coded into four categories for analysis’ purposes and to capture the prevalence in different phases in life: 0-17, 18-39, 40-64, and 65+ years old. The Offense Type variable was coded into the categories of “Aggravated Assault”, “Intimidation”, “Rape”, and “Simple Assault”, and the rest of the offenses were labeled as “Other” due to their frequence. A chi-square test was conducted to examine whether there is a significant association between offense type and age groups. Finally, a multinomial logistic regression model was used to predict the likeness of an IPV offense taking place based on Offense Type, while controlling for victim’s sociodemographic information, year, and location.
Results: IPV-related offenses among older adults accounted for only 0.82% of all the offenses in Missouri when compared to other age groups. The majority of victims were White (60%), not Hispanic/Latino (87%), and females (76%). Simple assault accounted for the most common of IPV offense overall, and for older adults specifically (67.41% and 69.68% respectively). The regression model accounted only for 0.02% of the variance in IPV offenses. Results showed that for all the IPV offenses, older adults were not significantly more likely to be victimized compared to younger groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study match the results of similar studies when studying the prevalence and the victimization of older adults regarding IPV. However, the aging population is expected to increase significantly within the next few decades. Additionally, considering that there are multiple barriers to reporting and identifying IPV within this population, as well as lack of standard protocols, practices, and trainings available specifically for identification of IPV victimization among older adults, research and practice should continue advocating for the importance of this issue.