Iowa moves toward creating criminal penalty for elder abuse

DES MOINES — Iowa is just steps away from joining 49 other states in criminalizing elder abuse.

The Iowa House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Senate File 522. The next step will be consideration by the full House. The Iowa Senate approved the bill 47-0 last year. If passed, the bill could then be signed into law.

“I’m very excited this bill might finally pass,” said Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines, who noted that Iowa is the only state without a criminal elder abuse law. “We’ve been working on it for many years. Many people have worked on getting the language right and we might be down to the last need to get it right.”

Bill manager Rep. Dustin Hite, R-New Sharon, agreed that “we can all share the goal of protecting older Iowans especially those who may be more vulnerable.” The challenge, he added, was to not make criminals of caregivers “who are trying to do their best, sometimes in a very, very difficult situation.”

Elder abuse takes many forms, according to AARP Iowa. In many cases, the victims know the abusers. In some cases they are family members. According to the National Council on Aging, about one in 10 Americans aged 60 or older have suffered from at least one form of elder abuse.

In Iowa, the state Department of Human Services saw a 37 percent increase in dependent abuse reports from the first half of 2020 to the second half of 2021, with 5,800 cases. However, about half of those reports were rejected by the department because they don’t fit within the existing legal definition that mandates the victim be classified as a “dependent adult” and the perpetrator be an official “caretaker.”

SF 522 would fix that gap and better protect all older Iowans from abuse, according to AARP Iowa.

“Today we are one step closer to protecting vulnerable Iowans from elder abuse,” said Anthony Carroll, AARP Iowa advocacy manager. “We thank the House Judiciary Committee for their bipartisan support of this critical bill and look forward working with the full Iowa House to get this legislation over the finish line in 2022.”

The bill establishes several crimes, including assault of an older individual, which is defined as 60 and older. Charges would range from a simple misdemeanor to a Class D felony, depending on the circumstances of the assault.

The bill also establishes criminal penalties for a person who “intentionally commits elder abuse” if injuries caused to the older individual are serious.

SF 522 also includes a crime of financial exploitation of an older person. That occurs when a person who stands in a position of trust with an older individual knowingly uses undue influence, deception, coercion, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty or extortion to gain control of benefits, property or other assets. The criminal penalties range from a serious misdemeanor to a Class B felony based on the amount of assets involved.

“It shall be unlawful for any person to abuse, emotionally abuse, neglect, isolate, or sexually exploit any older individual,” the proposed bill states.

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