Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-12-2019-056 |
| Pages | 273-275 |
| Date | 28 November 2019 |
| Published date | 28 November 2019 |
| Author | Bridget Penhale,Margaret Flynn |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Adult protection,Safeguarding,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Abuse |
Bridget Penhale and Margaret Flynn
Welcome to this final issue of the current volume. To start with, we provide some information and
recent stories that relate to safeguarding, which have appeared in different types of media.
As we approach the end of the year, the Office for National Statistics[1] has revealed that last year
there were an estimated 726 deaths of homeless people in England and Wales. Most of the
deaths were of men and their average age was 43 years. The average of age of the women who
died was 45 years. Liam Byrne, MP wants: “reviews for everyone who dies homeless, so that the
inconvenient truths of life and death cannot be ignored[2].”Since there are overwhelming
quantities of uneven reviews which are not easily retrieved and/or currently unequal to informing
learning, arguably there is rather more promise in Liam Byrne’s proposal “to create a duty on
public services, especially the DWP, the NHS, mental health services and the prison service to
work with councils to prevent homelessness.”
We have also learnedthat convictions for rape in the UK are currentlyat a record low[3]. During the
financial year 2018–2019 there were 1925prosecutions –this represents a dropof 27 percent on
the previousyear. This is despite an increasein the volume of alleged rapesthat are reported to the
police. These and similarly troubling figures concerning suspects charged with such offences as
stalking and domestic abuse, for example, have led the Crown Prosecution Service to request a
review of rape charging decisions.
The death of Oscar Okwurime at Harmondsworth Immigration Centre is being investigated[4].
Inadequate healthcare, restraint and fear of restraint all appear to merit particular attention in
relation to deaths like these. Furthermore, this bleak topic crosses such disciplines as education,
psychology, the law, pharmacy, history, anthropology and sociology –and all untoward deaths
should provide a powerful impetus for reflection and action.
In these strange and uncertain times, a post-graduate in search of a subject to investigate might
well explore “verbal abuse”and the use of language to cause offence. In recent weeks a “shock
jock”Australian broadcaster has been advised that his contract will be terminated if he makes
more misogynist utterances[5]. Exploitative “reality”TV; anonymous and vicious social media
postings; “Go back to where you came from;”and the lies and incendiary utterances of
totalitarian Presidents and Prime Ministers suggest that verbal abuse seemingly plays no part in
silencing diverse examples of hostility. Increased rates of reported hate crime focused on
disabled people in recent years also often consists of barely disguised verbal abuse.
Finally, if you are wondering about Christmas stocking-fillers, Peter James’“Dead at First
Sight”[6] brings “romance fraud”in from the adult safeguarding margins. It is a “whodunit”that
skillfully reports accounts of older, bereaved people seeking sexual intimacy and love once again.
Some readers may recall a previous novel several years ago, by Marina Lewycka that also
touched on issues relating to elder financial abuse (“A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian”)[7].
In James’novel, the loneliness. losses and embarrassments that older bereaved people can
experience are revealed with sensitivity, and the reach of internet scams is the flipside of their
shame. Another Christmas candidate for discerning readers is Susannah Walker’s“The Life of
Stuff: A memoir about the mess we leave behind[8].”This is a fascinating book because the
author was a curator and her mother’s death occasioned the clearing and sorting of a dilapidated
house crammed with rubbish and disguised losses. The author immerses herself in the topic of
hoarding, revisits the efforts of her family to discourage the accumulation of stuff and describes
the impact of her painstaking sorting of clutter. Her mother had recreated the splendor of her
DOI 10.1108/JAP-12-2019-056 VOL. 21 NO. 6 2019, pp. 273-275, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203
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Editorial
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