A Study on Trends in the Number and Content of Journal Article Titles Containing the Term “Elder Abuse”

Japan enacted the Elder Abuse Prevention Law on April 1, 2006; no amendments have been made since then. The purpose of this study is to examine trends in the number and content of journal article titles containing the term “elder abuse” and determine what further research is needed to identify where amendments to the law would be useful. We identified 986 articles using the CiNii database between the dates of 2005 to 2020. We categorized those titles by content, using a KJ Method. Preliminary analyses revealed that the average number of the articles published each year was 61.6, though a moving average of the numbers of articles on elder abuse has been steadily declining, as opposed to the average number for child abuse articles, 158, where the moving average staying the same. As for the analyses for the titles, they were categorized into 10 categories, including “law,” “responses of professional personnel to elder abuse,” “systems of government agencies,” “responses of nurses,” “institutional elder abuse,” “support for caregivers,” “reports on elder abuse in other countries,” “dementia and elder abuse,” “responses of medical institutions,” and “others.” It is suggested that more research needs to be done, especially in such areas as “verification of elder abuse cases,” “psychological impacts on elder abuse victims,” “empirical research conducted by medical doctors dealing with elder abuse cases,” and “cooperation between police and professional institutions,” many of which were found in research on child abuse where 4 law amendments have been made since its enactment of 2000.

Effect of suicide prevention law and media guidelines on copycat suicide of general population following celebrity suicides in South Korea, 2005–2017

Objective: To prevent copycat suicides following media reporting of celebrity suicides, the South Korean government enacted a ‘suicide prevention law’ in 2012 and revised the media guidelines for suicide reporting in 2013. This study examined how these two regulatory measures affected suicide trends among the general population in South Korea. Methods: We analyzed the individual effect estimates for the general population within 30 days following the media report of 24 celebrity suicides using multivariate negative binomial regression. We performed a meta-analysis to compute the pooled rate ratios of the two regulations. We examined the trends in daily suicides by month during three time intervals before and after enactment using an autoregressive model and tested their significance using a piecewise linear regression. Results: Total suicides increased by 6.27 daily during the 30-day period after celebrity suicides. Compared with the 30 days prior to the reports on the suicide of 24 celebrities, the number of suicidal deaths in the general population increased by 13% during the 30 days after the reports were announced (pooled rate ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval: 0.06–0.18; p < 0.001). There was a significant downward trend in the average daily suicide deaths, and no significant increase in suicide rates, after the enactment of the suicide prevention law ( p < 0.001) and revision of the media guidelines ( p = 0.014). Conclusions: Suicide prevention and media guidelines were effective in reducing the effect of celebrity suicides. In addition to regulating media reporting of celebrity suicide, measures are needed to address viral republication on social media and to prevent suicide among entertainers.

Network crowdsourcing and youth extremism prevention: law enforcement agencies and civil society

The fight against the manifestation of extremism among young people is an urgent problem that goes beyond law enforcement and requires a comprehensive socio-political solution. At the same time, preventive measures and technologies for the prevention of this negative phenomenon of public life play a significant role in countering extremism. The effective implementation of crowdsourcing network technologies unites national security entities for a coordinated solution of an urgent problem and helps to level the extremist threat. Their effectiveness should be measured based on the number of identified facts of an extremist orientation, and also the quality of leveling the negative consequences caused by extremist activity. To achieve the goal and objectives of the study, a system of scientific methods based on the systemic principle, the institutional approach, and the sociological method was used. All these methods made it possible to identify the importance of network crowdsourcing technologies for the prevention of extremism among the youth in the context of interaction between the state and citizens. When determining the effectiveness of crowdsourcing network technologies, the study evaluated the projects “Cibersquad”, “MediaGuard” and “STOPTERROR”, which participated in the prevention of extremism among young people. Largely due to their promotion, the level of extremist crime in 2019-2020 was reduced (compared to 2018). The article substantiates the effectiveness of crowdsourcing network technologies and concludes that their widespread adoption can “socialize” the system of preventing extremism among the youth, provided that not only government agencies, but also constructively-minded citizens’ associations are its most important actors.

Comparing Elder and Child Abuse Prevention Approaches in Japan: Strategies for Reducing Elder Abuse

This paper examines trends in elder abuse cases (types of abuse, traits of abusers, victims and their relationships, levels of disabilities and dementia of victims, etc.) by using longitudinal data (2012-2018) collected by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare since its enforcement. Considering these trends, this paper then compares the Elder Abuse Prevention Law to the Child Abuse Prevention Law to assess differences in policy and program provisions and how those relate to successful prevention outcomes. For example, while reports for both elder abuse and child abuse cases have been increasing, governmental actions taken in response have varied. The Child Abuse Prevention Law has been modified 6 times since its enactment based on abuse cases, but no amendments have been made for Elder Abuse Prevention Law based on case or evaluation data. Moreover, there have been many public awareness campaigns for child abuse prevention, but none for elder abuse prevention. These efforts appear to have positive outcomes including increased reporting of child abuse to police. This analysis aims to compare abuse data, abuse laws and public health efforts for children and older adults in Japan. Findings seek to identify disparities and areas where the public approach to child abuse can inform and strengthen elder abuse policies and programs.

Challenges for Prevention of Elder Abuse in Japan: Viewpoints From Legal and Practice Settings

This symposium begins by fist comparing features of the Japanese elder abuse prevention law to 3 other abuse prevention laws - child abuse, domestic abuse and abuse against people with disabilities. It highlights amendments that have been made to the child abuse and domestic abuse prevention laws since their enactment based on implementation experience, drawing contrast to the lack of amendments made to the elder abuse prevention law despite its three-year requirement for amendment review. Overall strengths and weaknesses of the elder abuse law are discussed including needed areas of revision. Second, a case study of nearly two decades of elder abuse prevention activities in Matsudo-city are presented and the subsequent enactment in April 2020 of a new regulation of the city is discussed. In addition, interim outcomes of a related research study in Matsudo-city on elder abuse involving non-caregivers for elderly people that will expand understanding of abuse prevention efforts are presented. Third, how can we abolish elder abuse in institutional settings will be discussed by analyzing elder abuse case studies. Finally, the most updated research outcomes conducted in in-home care service settings in 2020 will be presented. Its preliminary analyses revealed out of 1,417 responses, 2.9% were found to be ”body restraints.” Such abusive actions are less likely to be detected by others. The symposium concludes by assessing challenges for preventing elder abuse in policy and practice.

Efforts for Construction of More Effective Prevention and More Inclusive Protection Systems in Matsudo City

Matsudo City is preparing to implement an ordinance so that 3 protective services for children, older persons, and people with disabilities can work together for efficient prevention. Supporting pregnant women is sometimes effective for prevention of future child abuse. Supporting people with disabilities is often prevention of future neglect caused by them. Supporting perpetrators and victims of domestic violence is effective to prevent future elder abuse by interruption of abusive behaviors. We expect to prevent abuses by affiliation of various protective and supportive services. According to the Elder Abuse Prevention Law, elder abuse is defined as those inflicted by caregivers. Therefore, there is a big problem that abuses by non-caregivers are excluded from the coverage of the law. We are currently investigating abuses by non-caregivers to clarify the proportion of excluded cases among those reported to Elder Protective Services. I would like to talk about preliminary result of our investigation.

Challenges for Elder Abuse Prevention Law

This paper compares components of four abuse prevention laws in Japan, including elder abuse, child abuse and domestic abuse, and abuse for people with disabilities and delineates major strengths and weaknesses of the Elder Abuse Prevention Law in comparison to the other three. Based on this analysis, this paper recommends improvements in the elder abuse prevention law given the success of the related abuse laws. Despite the requirement of re-evaluation every 3 years, no amendments have been made to the elder abuse prevention law, while amendments have been made to the child abuse and domestic abuse prevention laws, based on outcome data and implementation experience. Identified needed revisions include provisions of protection orders and temporary shelters to protect elder victims from abusers at the time abuse is reported.

"We're Actually More of a Likely Ally than an Unlikely Ally": Relationships Between Syringe Services Programs and Law Enforcement

Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) provide sterile needles and a range of health services (e.g., HIV and HEP-C testing, overdose prevention education, provision of naloxone) to a hard-to-reach population, including people who inject drugs (PWID), aiming to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases. We performed a qualitative needs assessment of existing SSPs in the state of Colorado in 2018-2019 to describe the SSP activities, needs, and barriers. We performed semi-structured interviews with key program staff of SSPs (n=11). All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and validated. Qualitative researchers coded each transcript and maintained coding consistency through coding statistics (Kappa coefficient > 0.80) between coders. Memos were written to synthesize main themes. Nearly all the SSPs discussed their relationships with law enforcement at length. All SSPs viewed having a positive relationship with law enforcement as critical to the success of their program. Main factors that influence the quality of relationships between SSPs and law enforcement included: 1) alignment in agency culture, 2) support from law enforcement leadership, 3) police officers’ participation and compliance with the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which provides intensive case management for low-level drug offenders, and 4) implementation of the “Needle-Stick Prevention Law” and Drug Paraphernalia Law Exemption. All SSPs expressed a strong desire to have positive relationships with law enforcement and described how a collaborative working relationship was critical to the success of their programs. Our findings suggest effective strategies to foster relationships between SSPs and law enforcement as well as key barriers to address.