(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has unanimously approved a bill that defines elder abuse as a crime and sets up enhanced penalties for assaulting or defrauding an older Iowan. The bill applies to alleged crimes against dependent adults or individuals who are 60 or older. Republican Representative Dustin Hite from New Sharon, says “Many of us have dealt with these situations, whether it involves friends, family members, neighbors…and what this bill does is it provides additional protections for older Iowans.”

Hite, who is a lawyer, says he’s seen cases where someone has taken advantage of an older Iowan. “Whether it’s a family member, it’s a huckster or whether it’s somebody else that this person trusts, we see where they can take advantage of some of our most vulnerable Iowans,” Hite says.

The bill cleared the Iowa Senate last year. House members have made a small change to the legislation, to ensure family members or guardians don’t get charged for steps to protect an older Iowan by, for example, taking their car keys if they’re no longer a safe driver or telling a bank to stop allowing withdrawals on the person’s accounts. Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, voted for the bill, but she says there’s no evidence enhanced penalties would be a deterrent. “And personally, I don’t think that as soon as I turn 60, somehow a person who assaults me or steals from me should be more heavily sanctioned than someone who does it against someone who’s 59,” Wolfe says.

The bill has been a priority for A-A-R-P of Iowa. The group says because elder abuse has not been defined as a crime in Iowa, police and financial institutions have sometimes been unable to properly prosecute people who’ve taken advantage of an older Iowan or who’ve abused a dependent adult. House changes to the bill must be approved by the Senate before it could be signed into law by the governor.