Seniors are among the safest people in Canada and are the least likely to be assaulted or robbed, according to Statistics Canada.
What victimization they do experience, however, is more likely to be at the hands of their own family.
Statscan's 2004 general social survey says rates of victimization, violence and robbery are all lower for over-65s than for their younger counterparts.
The rate of violence against seniors was one-20th that of people aged 15 to 24, and one-quarter that of people aged 55 to 64.
Older men were more likely than women to experience violent crime, but while seniors may seem more frail than younger people, they were no more likely to be injured through violence.
Police reports reveal that almost half of all senior victims were victimized by a family member, compared with 40 per cent of non-senior victims.
"The most common perpetrators of family violence against seniors were adult children (35 per cent) and current or previous spouses (31 per cent)," writes report author Lucie Ogrodnik, from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
Seniors experienced far fewer thefts of personal property - just over one-eighth the rate of 15-to-24-year-olds - and households occupied by them were only about one-third as likely to be broken into, suffer a stolen car or be vandalized.
The full report can be found at http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/85F0033MIE/85F0033MIE2007014.htm.