NOFO: Research on Abuse, Neglect and Financial Exploitation of Older Adults (US)

Deadline: 13-Apr-23

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), National Institute of Justice (NIJ) seeks applications for funding to advance knowledge to inform efforts to prevent, detect, disrupt, reduce, and/or otherwise combat the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults.

NIJ will give special consideration to proposals with methods that include meaningful engagement with the people with lived experience of the subject of study; including but not limited to, justice practitioners, community members, crime victims, service providers, and individuals who have experienced justice system involvement. Applicants are encouraged to propose multidisciplinary research teams to build on the complementary strengths of different methods and areas of subject matter expertise. NIJ also seeks proposals that include consideration and measurement of issues of diversity, discrimination, and bias across age, gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, as applicable.

Priority Areas

• The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.
  • Priority Considerations Supporting Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government
    • Applications that propose research project(s) that are designed to promote racial equity and the removal of barriers to access and opportunity for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality, when making award decisions.
    • Applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed project(s) are enhanced because they (or at least one proposed subrecipient that will receive at least 40% of the requested award funding, as demonstrated in the Budget Web-Based Form) identify as a culturally specific organization.
  • Minority Serving Institutions
    • NIJ will give special consideration in award decisions to proposals from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
    • MSIs include:
      • Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
      • Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSI)
      • Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
      • Alaska Native-serving Institutions or Native Hawaiian-serving Institutions (ANNH)
      • Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI)
      • Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions (AANAPISI)
      • Native American-serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI)

Goals, Objectives and Deliverables

• Goals
  • The goal of this solicitation is to advance knowledge to inform efforts to prevent, detect, disrupt, reduce, and/or otherwise combat the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults.
• Objectives
  • An applicant should address the objectives that are relevant to their proposed program/project in the Goals, Objectives, Deliverables, and Timeline web-based form. This solicitation seeks to support projects that:
    • evaluate programs that seek to prevent, intervene in, or respond to the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults;
    • conduct research on individuals who abuse older adults;
    • conduct research on polyvictimization in older adults; and
    • conduct research on fraud and financial exploitation of older adults.
• Deliverables
  • Final Research Report. Any recipient of an award under this solicitation will be expected to submit a final research report.
  • Required Data Sets and Associated Files and Documentation. Any recipient of an award under this solicitation will be expected to submit to the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) all data sets that result, in whole or in part, from the work funded by the award, along with associated files and any documentation necessary for future efforts by others to reproduce the project’s findings and/or to extend the scientific value of the data set through secondary analysis.
  • In addition to these deliverables (and the required reports and data on performance measures), NIJ expects scholarly products to result from each award under this solicitation, taking the form of one or more published, peer reviewed, scientific journal articles, and/or (if appropriate) law review journal articles, book chapter(s) or book(s) in the academic press, technological prototypes, patented inventions, or similar scientific products. NIJ expects that there will be an equal effort to make the research findings accessible to practitioner and policymaker audiences.

Topic Areas

NIJ’s program of research on the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults (age 60 years or above) seeks to improve knowledge and understanding of key relevant issues through science. For the purposes of this solicitation, NIJ is seeking proposals to address one or more of the following four topic areas:

• Evaluation of programs that seek to prevent, intervene, or respond to the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults.
  • Although development of approaches to combat the abuse of older adults is increasing, knowledge of the effectiveness of these approaches is limited. NIJ seeks proposals for evaluations of programs designed to prevent, intervene in, or respond to the abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of older adults.
• Research on individuals who abuse older adults.
  • There has been some recent growth in the understanding of individuals who abuse older adults. For example, findings from an analysis of victim reports substantiated by Illinois Adult Protective Services (APS) caseworkers suggest that these individuals can be characterized according to four different subtypes based on the types of abuse they inflict and the characteristics of their victims. In addition, findings from a recent NIJ-funded study indicate that there are certain characteristics of these individuals that facilitate or hinder victims’ help-seeking behaviors.
• Research on polyvictimization in older adults.
  • Research examining polyvictimization and its impacts has been limited in the context of abuse of older adults, compared to other fields such as violence experienced by children and youth. More research is needed to build and expand on these findings, including longitudinal studies that consider a comprehensive life course perspective. NIJ seeks proposals for research to examine the rates, patterns, and contexts for polyvictimization across diverse groups. NIJ is also interested in studies that examine trajectories of different types of victimizations, frequency and severity of abuse, and the cumulative effects across the lifespan.
• Research on fraud and financial exploitation of older adults.
  • In general, fraud is defined as an attempt to deceive a person by misrepresenting, concealing, or omitting facts about promised goods, services, or financial benefits that either do not exist, were never intended to be provided, or were deliberately distorted for the purpose of monetary gain. Financial exploitation refers to the illegal or improper use of a person’s property, income, resources, or funds, and typically occurs within a relationship characterized by trust. Fraud and financial exploitation of older adults is a concern because estimates indicate that older adults are more likely to be victims of certain frauds than certain other age groups. Some research suggests that older adults may be at higher risk for financial fraud and exploitation.

Funding Information

• Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation $1,500,000.00
• Period of Performance Duration (Months): 60

Eligibility Criteria

• Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
• City or township governments
• Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
• Private institutions of higher education
• For profit organizations other than small businesses
• County governments
• Special district governments
• Small businesses
• Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
• Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
• Independent school districts
• State governments
• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Unrestricted
• Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education

For more information, visit Grants.gov.