Research directly testing Akers's social learning theory has been thus far confined to teenage drug, drinking, and smoking behavior. This study extends the application of social learning theory to older adults' alcohol behavior. Data were gathered through face‐to‐face interviews of 1,410 people sixty years of age or over living in New Jersey and Florida in either retirement (age homogeneous) or age‐integrated communities. A social learning model of differential association, differential reinforcement, and definitions is supported by findings on elderly drinking behavior. As is true for younger age groups, drinking among the elderly is related to the norms and behavior of one's primary groups, one's own attitudes toward (definitions of) alcohol, and the balance of reinforcement for drinking.

The central issue examined here is the effect that community setting, relative to other factors, has on victimization and fear of crime among the elderly. Findings are from 1,410 in‐home interviews in two retirement communities (age homogeneous) and two age‐heterogeneous communities. Victimization of elderly is low in all communities, and although nearly half of the respondents have some fear of crime, the percentage reporting great fear of crime is low. Victimization and fear of crime are only weakly related to one another, and the regression model for each does not account for much variance. But both are significantly related to the type of community, and fear of crime is also related to other variables. The greater the age density of the community (greater concentration of elderly), the less crime and less fear of crime. Living arrangements, sociodemographic variables, and health status of the elderly as indicators of personal vulnerability to crime are not related to victimization, but are related to fear of crime, and effects of community setting on fear of crime are reduced when these other variables are taken into account. Suggestions for other, unmeasured, sources of variations and implications for future research are presented.

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A substantial number of U.S. elderly households have excessive housing costs or live in physically deficient dwellings. It is unclear, however, whether they are more likely than nonelderly households to experience these housing problems. Using American Housing Survey data, this study investigates whether elderly households are more likely than nonelderly households to have these problems after controlling for their owner-renter status, race, and income. The findings do not support the more deprived housing status of elderly households.