The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

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lay in reporting an injury or if they are told that the
injured person was “accident-prone” or “clumsy.”
Some states have enacted laws that mandate
tougher penalties for offenses against the elderly.
The 1990’s also saw the passage of laws that allow
fines or imprisonment of anyone over eighteen
years of age who has the financial resources but fails
to support a needy older or disabled parent. The
same approach was taken in British Columbia in
1996 in its Family Relations Act.


Impact As the generation of baby boomers born
shortly after the end of World War II moves into their
sixties and seventies, the problem of elder abuse is
likely to become further aggravated. Many of these
men and women do not have medical insurance or
long-term health care polices, making them particu-
larly susceptible to abuse and neglect.


Further Reading
Aitken, Lynda, and Gabriele Griffin.Gender Issues in
Elder Abuse.Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publica-
tions, 1996. Emphasizing the “feminization of old
age,” the British authors focus on the notably vul-
nerable position of older women in regard to
abuse and neglect.
Cebik, Leroy B., Glenn C. Graber, and Frank H.
Marsh, eds.Advances in Bioethics: Violence, Neglect,
and the Elderly.Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1996.
The contributed articles are particularly con-
cerned with the ethical issues raised by society’s
responsibilities to the aged.
Johnson, Tanya Fusco, ed.Elder Mistreatment: Ethical
Issues, Dilemmas, and Decisions.Binghamton, N.Y.:
Haworth Press, 1995. A chapter by Vicki Kryk
stands out by offering three detailed case histo-
ries of elder abuse.
MacLean, Michael J., ed.Abuse and Neglect of Older Ca-
nadians: Strategies for Change.Toronto: Thompson
Educational, 1995. Contains separate sections on
practices, policy considerations, educational pro-
grams, and research results and offers recom-
mendations in regard to elder abuse in Canada.
Tatara, Tosio, ed.Understanding Elder Abuse in Minor-
ity Populations.Philadelphia: Bruner/Mazel, 1999.
Chapters discuss elder abuse among African
Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Na-
tive Americans.
Gilbert Geis


See also Crime; Demographics of Canada; Demo-
graphics of the United States.

 Elders, Joycelyn
Identification Surgeon general of the United
States, 1993-1994
Born August 13, 1933; Schaal, Arkansas
Elders was the first African American and the second
woman to be appointed U.S. surgeon general. Her contro-
versial statements about sex education resulted in her being
fired after fifteen months in the position.
Joycelyn Elders served as surgeon general of the
United States from September 8, 1993, until Decem-
ber 31, 1994. She was appointed surgeon general by
President Bill Clinton, who as governor of Arkansas
had appointed her director of the Department of
Health in 1987. She doubled the immunization rate
against early childhood diseases and increased tre-
mendously the number of medical screenings per-
formed on children in Arkansas.
During her 1993 confirmation hearings, Elders
recounted how she saw a doctor for the first time in
her life when she entered college. One of her goals
as surgeon general was to create wider access to
health care. Elders attended the University of Arkan-
sas Medical School during a time of legal segrega-
tion, when it was highly unusual for a woman, espe-
cially an African American woman, to be admitted to
medical school.
The courage and outspokenness that served her
well as director of the Department of Health in Ar-
kansas proved to be a liability when Elders was ap-
pointed surgeon general. An expert in pediatric
endocrinology and childhood sexual development,
Elders annoyed many members of Congress, partic-
ularly conservatives, by advocating comprehensive
sex education programs in public schools. She was
against abstinence-only sex education programs, fa-
vored keeping abortion legal, and advocated con-
dom distribution in high schools as a means of low-
ering the transmission rate of sexual disease and
decreasing the teenage pregnancy rate. She publicly
stated that no one in Washington was qualified to
make decisions about sexuality or reproduction for
other people. Elders also publicly suggested that
perhaps some categories of drugs might be legalized
on health-related grounds or as a means to reduce

294  Elders, Joycelyn The Nineties in America

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