Americans over the age of fifty-five represent a rapidly growing segment of the United States’ population. U.S. Bureau of the Census, from a detail study states that, between the years of 1960 and 1980, the population of individuals over the age of sixty-five increased from nine to eleven percent of the population.
In addition, in 1980, more than five million of these people were over eighty years old. The number of elderly individuals has steadily increased over the years. In 1994, the sixty-five and older population exceeded thirty-three million and represented 12.5 percent of the total population. Two years later, in 1996, the elder population’s growth continued to escalate, swelling to forty-four million people aged sixty or older. Time has proven that these numbers are on the rise, and by 2020, an estimated one in every six Americans will be sixty-five or older: an increase of about twenty million senior citizens as compared to 1996. Elderly people, due to their vulnerability and increased dependence on others, fall easy preys to this inhuman abuse and torture.
According to a survey conducted by “The National Center on Elder Abuse” in the United States, elder abuse problems are expected to grow as the number of aging Americans will make a ratio of one in five people who is expected to be more than 65 years old by 2030. In New Jersey alone, more than “70,000 elders are at risk of being physically, emotionally, or financially abused and neglected