Since the early 1970s, demographers and other social scientists have predicted an increase in the number of elderly people living in America. What has not increased to the same magnitude, however, is our understanding of the criminal victimization of elderly persons or our understanding how to respond to offenders who abuse elderly persons. Of concern in this research was the way that four groups perceive the sanctioning of offenses committed against elderly persons: police chiefs, nursing home administrators, nursing home staff, and students enrolled in sociology and criminal justice courses. By conceptualizing the perceptions of abuse among these four groups, steps can be taken toward either preventing or responding to crimes against elderly persons.In the mid-1970s the concept of "granny-bashing" began to appear in British medical journals and described instances where older citizens were abused by family members, caregivers, health care employees, and a host of other individuals (Baker, 1975;Ogg & Munn-Giddings, 1993). At the same time, predictions were made that the number of elderly citizens living in the United States would increase gradually throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, two things have occurred. First, we have seen increases in longevity and the number of people ages 65 or older. Second, we have witnessed the evolution of the granny-bashing concept into other concepts viewed as more politically correct. These new concepts included battered parent, elder maltreatment, and elder abuse (Crystal, 1987;Katz, 1979;Pillemer, 1986). Although these new concepts have been forthcoming, research into the way elder abuse cases are handled in the legal system is relatively scarce in the literature.