An Investigation of the Longitudinal Effects of Crime Victimisation on Social Well-being; Cognitive and Physical Health in Older Adults

在犯罪发生后的短期甚至很长一段时间内，成为犯罪的受害者会对人们的健康和福祉产生不利影响（例如Norman et al., 2012）。在老年人中，虐待（包括犯罪虐待和忽视）与虐待发生后的生存年数减少有关（Lachs, Williams， O'Brien, Pillemer, & Charlson, 1998）。然而，受害如何导致死亡风险增加仍不清楚。Lachs等人（1998）认为消极的社会支持可能是直接或间接的原因。有一些证据表明，对于老年人来说，成为犯罪的受害者与更大的社会孤立有关；感觉不安全的增加，对邻居的不满程度更高（Scharf, Phillipson, & Smith, 2005）。最近一项关于虐待老年人负面后果的综述显示，成为虐待受害者与负面健康后果之间存在密切联系，包括身体健康状况下降、住院治疗和精神健康障碍增加（Yunus, Hairi, & Yuen, 2019）。然而，综述发现，文献中没有足够的研究来确定老年人受害对他们的生活质量、认知能力下降和社会功能的影响。我们确实知道，老年人的社会孤立与身心健康状况下降（Cornwell & Waite, 2009）、认知能力下降（Tilvis et al., 2004）以及对犯罪的恐惧增加有关（Acierno, Rheingold, Resnick, & Kilpatrick, 2004）。相反，拥有社会支持预示着老年人更高的生活质量（Gow, Pattie, Whiteman, Whalley, & Deary,2007）。其中一些影响表明，负反馈循环可能在起作用。社会孤立可能会增加认知能力下降和对犯罪的恐惧，但对犯罪的恐惧和认知能力下降也可能会增加社会孤立：这个网络中的每个节点都可能加强彼此的作用。

Being the victim of a crime can have detrimental effects on people's health and well-being, in theshort term and even long after the crime was committed (e.g. Norman et al., 2012). In older adults,abuse (both criminal abuse and neglect) is associated with decreased years of survival after theabuse occurred (Lachs, Williams, O'Brien, Pillemer, & Charlson, 1998). However, it is still unclearhow victimisation leads to increased risk of death. Lachs et al. (1998) suggest that negative socialsupport may directly or indirectly be a causal factor. There is some evidence that, for older adults,being the victim of a crime is associated with greater social isolation; an increase in feeling unsafeand a higher level of dissatisfaction with their neighbourhood (Scharf, Phillipson, & Smith, 2005). Arecent review of the negative consequences of abuse of older adults shows strong links betweenbeing the victim of abuse and negative health consequences, including decreased physical health,increased hospitalisation and mental health disorders (Yunus, Hairi, & Yuen, 2019). However, thereview found that there were not enough studies in the literature to be certain of the effect ofolder adults' victimisation their quality of life, cognitive decline and social functioning.We do know that social isolation in older adults is linked to reduced physical and mental health(Cornwell & Waite, 2009), increased cognitive decline (Tilvis et al., 2004), as well as leading to anincrease in fear of crime (Acierno, Rheingold, Resnick, & Kilpatrick, 2004). Conversely having socialsupport predicts higher quality of life in older adults (Gow, Pattie, Whiteman, Whalley, & Deary,2007). Some of these effects suggest that negative feedback loops maybe at play here. Socialisolation may increase cognitive decline and fear of crime, but fear of crime and cognitive declinemay also increase social isolation: each node in this network could be strengthening each other'seffect.