Customer Reviews

FINANCIAL ABUSE OF THE ELDERLY; A Detective's Case Files Of Exploitation Crimes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am recommending this book because it confirms what I know from my own experience, and from communicating with numerous others who have shared with me their own experience, namely that the public has been misled about the adequacy of our existing laws. Anyone who doubts this needs to read Chapter 6, where Detective Roubicek provides a first hand account of his role in both (1) thwarting legislation that was subtly worded so as to exempt the perps in most exploitation cases and (2) drafting Florida's current crime statute (825.103) regarding the exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult.

Another misconception which Detective Roubicek corrects is the notion that exploitation is the same as fraud. While older folks are often victims of fraud, Detective Roubicek emphasizes that "while elderly fraud victims are independent persons with the capacity to give consent, exploitation victims are disabled in some manner and this disability contributes to their victimization." Detective Roubicek describes several cases which could not be prosecuted because of failure to adequately recognize this distinction.

Detective Roubicek makes this most clear at the end of Chapter 5, where he writes "Although many of my exploitation cases ended with arrests, convictions and prison terms, others fell to the wayside because of capacity and consent issues that still plague prosecution efforts today." He also makes this clear at the end of his book, where he acknowledges the practical problems inherent in each of the prevention measures that he mentions. An understanding of these practical problems should lead to better laws, including one which this reviewer recommended in 2005 to delegates to the White House Conference on Aging. Had Detective Roubicek been familiar with such material at the time he published his book, I like to think that he would have mentioned it, but he still points to the need that these issues be addressed over and over in his "true crime" account of a career investigating exploitation crimes. I highly recommend this book!

This book was not only enlightening, it was also entertaining, and captured my attention from beginning to end. BRAVO!

This book is an excellent resource that has helped me learn how to better recognize and discuss elder abuse. It is written quite clearly and contains a wealth of information. This is a book that I have loaned out or given away many times - and here I am buying it again!

One of the few excellent books that outlines the frustration of protecting elders from Financial Abuse. Joe illustrates just how difficult it is to prosecute Elder Financial Abuse cases, regardless of the damage to the Senior.

I've recently finished reading this excellent book describing how the elderly become victims of financial abuse. The author, Joe Roubicek, was a detective in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department for many years, and he investigated over 1000 cases of exploitation of the elderly during that period on the police force. The book describes some of the cases he investigated and discusses the shortcomings of state laws protecting the elderly from financial abuse.

Roubicek clarifies the differences between exploitation of the elderly and fraud. Exploitation occurs when someone takes advantage of a disabled elderly person to deprive that person of his or her assets. For example, an in-home caregiver might take advantage of her employer's memory deficits to ask for grocery money five times in a single day. Fraud occurs when a "false and deceptive statement of fact induces the victim to give up a valuable item that he or she owns." Fraud laws are written under the assumption that the victim has the mental capacity to weigh information and make decisions. For example, if a roofing contractor takes a deposit for work on a house with quality materials and workmanship and returns to do the job with defective materials, then fraud may have occurred.

Unfortunately, financial elder abuse often occurs in the gray area between the fraud and the exploitation statutes. Many of the cases described in the book involve victims who lived alone and were stripped of their assets by contractors, care givers, and others. It was often difficult for the police to prove that the victim lacked mental capacity at the time of the asset transfers, which is a crucial element of a conviction for exploitation. At the same time, the police could not make a case for fraud because the assets were typically "gifted" to the recipient, and there was no provable deception. This gray area gives a huge advantage to elder abusers who gain the trust of mentally and physically feeble victims and then take their assets.

This is not a feel-good book about how the police and state laws protect the elderly. Many of the suspects in Detective Roubicek's cases get away with their abuse because of the difficulties associated with proving exploitation. The book is a wake up call to protect yourself and the elderly people you care about.

Financial Abuse of the Elderly is written in the same straightforward style that Detective Roubicek probably used in his police reports and court testimony. There are some grammatical mistakes, but they don't detract from this very interesting and timely book. I'm a lawyer and some of Roubicek's descriptions of trusts and powers of attorney as preventative measures were not absolutely correct, but your local attorney can help you understand what to do.

If you have elderly parents, relatives, or friends, I recommend that you read this book, and then use this information to help your elderly loved ones protect themselves from potential financial abuse.

This author strips away the complexity of financial exploitation and provides an underlying simplicity in the book's introduction. Those who have experienced elderly exploitation directly or indirectly will almost certainly benefit greatly by reading these true crime case files. Good job here.

How can you protect a senior from financial exploitation without an understanding of exactly what it is? It is not fraud, yet it is a type of financial abuse. My book will clearly define and illustrate with "true crime" what every reader should know BEFORE a family member is victimized.
The web site: exploitationelderly.com also compliments the book.