Critical Essay on Stealing Joy

Introduction

Stealing joy is a real storybook written by Glynnis Walker explaining how the elderly victims of fraud end up destitute after their assets are decimated. The writer experienced a hard time when she lost her parents not only to Alzheimer's but also to elder fraud. However, Dr. Walker being a genuine and honest human, she creates a positive response by producing a book that aims at alerting all people with aging parents. Walker clearly explains how every person with a caring heart can become a victim to such malicious situations. All through the book, Dr. Walker explains the primary agents that contribute to such joy stealing actions. Some of the key concerns are undue influence, crimes and Christmas and truth and consequences among others. Considering the caring hearts that grow in older adults, the book is of good help to the heir and other close people. The existence of inhuman scammers and fraudsters can cause massive damage in several families.

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According to the Older American Act of 2006, exploitation to acquire inheritance from either a relative or a stranger is illegal and is features as a fraud. Such cases have increased in America, and many families are moaning the loss of their hard earned wealth. Predatory people have made the world to become a dangerous place to live. However, the condition is not only contributed by the vulnerable people living within but because of the ignorant people who do nothing to stop the situation. As expected, the world has changed to a place of scammers, fraudsters, and liars. The unexpected misfits, such nightmares are pointlessly established by the most innocent people. For instance, her mother was taken by three women who arranged her horrible death. Surprisingly, the victims are mostly the caring elders. The situation is even harder to predict such cases than preventing them. The useless peoples in society tend to ignore the possibility of these cases hence making it difficult to seek justice conveniently.

These cases of elderly fraud are very delicate to families since the documents tend to legalize the inheritance. Upon approval the heir either right or wrong gets full possession of all assets and the law support the existing documents. The situation becomes worse when the original owner dies. In walker's case, her mother was killed in order to bury any kind of evidence. Death of such victims are important to the offenders since the only legit signature remains missing.

Before every situation, there is always a perfect storm of opportunity. A feeling that alerts the victims accompanies the period. At the same time, the fraudsters get unlimited chance to execute their mission. Different conditions build up, and a time you find yourself indirectly accelerating the crime. For instance, Walker was away from her mother, and she could access her frequently. At this point she found herself encouraging strangers to give her mother all required company.

In the world of fraudsters, there are two types of predators. These are non-institutional and institutional predators. The non-institutional predators are an example of family members, friends or caretakers (Glynnis, 2014). However, the family members are mainly from the extended end or unknown clan. Then we have the institutional predators who are most trusted professional such as lawyers, trustees and financial advisors. Most of these frauds are executed through the use of emails and other social media platforms. The age of the target victim denies them to suspect encrypted messages such as emails. These unlimited tricks a time convinces the elderly to fall in different traps in the name of securing their assets. Despite the two groups executing a similar mission, the professionals are more dangerous to base their knowledge on the law. Moreover, at some point, the lawyer might be familiar with the family hence making the mission easier.

Dr. Walker clearly outlines different shreds of evidence supporting her point on elderly fraud. The evidence includes her real-life story that caused the death of her mother. The challenges highlighted by Dr. Walker prove her point of argument. For instance, she emphasizes the predictors to be more interested in caring, adult. In her real life case, Walker refers to her mother as a caring mother who loved both her children and grandchildren. The existence of two types of predictors is also explained in details and examples clearly stated. In this section, she suggests that institutional predators are the most dangerous compared to non-institutional. To support this, she explains that the majority of professional predators are in most cases related to the wealth of the victim.

The work of Walker has expressed different concepts of crime victimization. These concepts are mainly related to the offender and the victim. Firstly, the three women fixed false allegations and claims that corrupted the truth in walker's mother mind. The action can be referred to as fraud since the accounts and documents were invalid copies. Secondly, the relation between the victim and offenders was kept professional. In this case the victim was convinced that the three women were legit advocates. Surprisingly, the lawyer was involved after the death of Walker's father hence erasing doubts and any feeling of conman-ship. Thirdly, victim facilitation can be observed where her negligence made her more vulnerable to criminal conduct. The ethical way to handle the situation was involving her daughter since she was always responsible for all financial issues. Forth, auto theft is present in the above case. The kindness of the victim explains the concept. Usually, inheritance is received by the immediate relative. Therefore, Walker's mother should have included walker in all situations regarding claiming of the assets.

In such cases, prevention measures should be created in two main ways. At first, all elderly people should not be allowed to change their assets document without involving several parties that approve the heir. For instance, Walker's mother should have been requested to provide evidence about her family by involving different family members and some childhood friends. This means a concrete research should be done in order to ensure that every documentation process happens to the right people. The other measure should be frequent survey of assets. The kind of survey calls for a mega-registration of all citizens. All citizens should have a close relation with all family members in order to make track on all processes done. The registration will help the authorizations to clarify all presented documents.

Glynnis Walker is one of the few successful writers in the industry. Although the writer has other copies on business, Walker shows excellent potential in the industry. The message passed by the book is perfectly refined to bring a significant impact on people's life. The tone of the letter to the audience expels all heartless feelings and attitudes. Alternatively, Walker illustrates different skills that verify her as an expert. Writing is an art of communication, and many writers fail in this section. However, walker adopts professional skills to express her ideas, emotions, and thoughts. From the beginning, she connects with the audience by using a unique voice. On some level, Walker possesses the power of observation. The writing clearly shows that the author had figured what the audience needs in term of emotions and character. The skills make the audience to become an active observer of life. The most critical part was perfected from the introduction to the conclusion. Besides using a mature tone, Walker demonstrated knowledge of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If the readers are to form an opinion basing on the observable work, Walker would have scored excellence. Moreover, she shows her expertise by demonstrating courage. The story is so much hurting and putting it down to an international book takes great courage and sacrifice. These skills have been missing in majority of books including fiction writings. However, walker utilizes all these skills efficiently despite her story being a real life experience. Such courage and creativity in her writing makes her a proficient writer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, elderly fraud is rapidly growing in America hence causing horrible deaths and miserable afterlife of the victims. The message perceived by the author enlightens the young generation on the possible problems their aged parents could face. Moreover, the book introduces different writing skills such as fearlessness, observation, and problem-solving, reasoning and grammar knowledge.

References

Glynnis A. (2014) Stealing Joy: A True Story of Alzheimer's, Elder Abuse, and Fraud.