Prof. Gómez & Colleagues Explore Financial Exploitation of Older Adults Through Betrayal Trauma Theory
When older adults are financially exploited, the harm is more than just monetary – especially when the perpetrators are their family members.
Jennifer M. Gómez, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW), examines the ripple effect of financial victimization in an article in Aging & Mental Health coauthored by LaToya Hall and Peter Lichtenberg.
The researchers found that older adults who were victimized by family members had higher stress, lower functional ability, and lost more money on average than those victimized by strangers. They also found that Freyd’s betrayal trauma theory – which describes the effects of abuse perpetrated by caregivers and other trusted individuals – provides a valuable framework for understanding why older adult family financial exploitation victims are more vulnerable than victims of exploitation committed by strangers.
Their analysis focuses on African American older adults in order to improve understanding of the unique challenges these victims face and inform prevention and intervention services.
Prof. Jennifer M. Gómez is a Black feminist trauma researcher and critical race scholar who developed cultural betrayal trauma theory, an offshoot of betrayal trauma theory that provides a framework for understanding the impact of oppression on outcomes of violence on marginalized individuals and communities.