Sicher leben im Alter. Ein Aktionsprogramm zur Prävention von Kriminalität und Gewalt gegenüber alten und pflegebedürftigen Menschen

Mit Unterstützung durch das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend konnte ein modulares Aktionsprogramm zur Optimierung der Sicherheit älterer und pflege-bedürftiger Menschen umgesetzt werden. Dieses Programm zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass es seine Aktivitäten auf ausgewählte, als vorrangig definierte Präventionsbereiche fokussiert. Ausgangspunkt des unter dem Titel „Sicher leben im Alter“ umgesetzten Programms war die ebenfalls mit Unterstützung durch das BMFSFJ durchgeführte Studie „Kriminalität und Gewalt im Leben alter Menschen“. Diese hatte herausgearbeitet, dass die meisten Menschen jenseits des 60. Lebensjahres insgesamt im Alter weniger durch Krimina-lität und Gewalt bedroht sind als Erwachsene in jüngeren Lebensphasen. Zugleich war deutlich geworden, dass „Alter“ auch im Hinblick auf derartige Gefährdungen und Bedrohungen eines differenzierenden Blickes bedarf. Die Studie hatte gezeigt, dass es Bereiche gibt, in denen im Hinblick auf Sicherheit älterer Menschen Handlungsbedarf besteht.So bilden pflegebedürftige ältere Menschen eine besonders vulnerable Gruppe. Ob sie zu Hause durch Angehörige, mit Unterstützung ambulanter Kräfte oder auch in einer stationären Ein-richtung versorgt und gepflegt werden – mit dem Merkmal der Pflegebedürftigkeit konstitutiv verbunden ist das Angewiesensein auf Dritte und damit auch die Verletzbarkeit durch die Pflege, Betreuung und Versorgung leistenden Personen oder auch durch andere. Ergebnisse aus Befragungen und Interviews im Rahmen der Studie „Kriminalität und Gewalt im Leben alter Menschen“ weisen darauf hin, dass die Prävalenz von Misshandlung und Vernachlässigung in der häuslichen Pflege hoch ist, dass es sich zugleich um ein Problemfeld handelt, in dem sich Entstehungsbedingungen und Handlungsmotive von denen in „klassischen“ Feldern der Gewaltkriminalität insgesamt deutlich unterscheiden und das von daher auch eigener Präven-tions- und Interventionsansätze bedarf. Ferner wurde im Rahmen der Studie deutlich, dass Gewalt in Partnerschaften sich durchaus bis ins Alter hinein fortsetzen oder auch unter im Alter sich verändernden Lebensbedingungen erstmals zum Problem werden kann. Alle vorliegenden Daten weisen darauf hin, dass insbe-sondere die physische Gewalt in Partnerschaften im Alter zwar zurückgeht, dass es aber bis ins hohe Alter hinein teils verfestigte und chronifizierte Formen von Gewalt in Partnerschaften gibt und dass vorhandene Infrastrukturen auf diese Problematik und auf die Zielgruppe älte-rer gewaltbetroffener Frauen bislang kaum hinreichend eingestellt und ausgerichtet sind. Während es zu den grundlegenden Befunden der kriminologischen und viktimologischen Forschung gehört, dass Täterinnen bzw. Täter und Opfer in den meisten Kriminalitätsfeldern einander in ihren demografischen Profilen recht ähnlich sind und sich im Kontext alltäglicher Routinen begegnen, wurden gerade im Hinblick auf das hohe Alter Phänomene erkennbar, die diesem Muster nicht entsprechen, bei denen vielmehr eine gezielte Opferwahl betrieben wird, die sich nicht zuletzt am Alter der Betroffenen und an vom Täter mit hohem Alter assoziierten Merkmalen und daraus wiederum abgeleiteten günstigen Tatgelegenheiten ausrichten. Dies betrifft im Wesentlichen Eigentums- und Vermögensdelikte, bei denen unter Einsatz von Täuschungen unterschiedlicher Art das Vertrauen einer älteren Person missbraucht und zum eigenen materiellen Vorteil ausgenutzt wird. Hierzu gehören Betrugsstraftaten („Enkeltrick“) ebenso wie unter Vortäuschung einer falschen Identität in der privaten Wohnung der Betroffe-nen begangene Diebstähle oder unseriöse Verkaufspraktiken zum Nachteil älterer Menschen. Schließlich ergaben sich im Rahmen der Studie „Kriminalität und Gewalt im Leben alter Menschen“ Hinweise darauf, dass gerade bei hochaltrigen und gesundheitlich eingeschränkten Menschen die Gefahr des Verkennens nicht natürlicher Todesfälle besteht.Die im Rahmen des Aktionsprogramms „Sicher leben im Alter“ entwickelten und erprobten Maßnahmen richten sich entsprechend auf die Bereiche der Misshandlung und Vernachlässi-gung älterer Pflegebedürftiger durch Angehörige, der Hilfen für ältere Frauen, die von Gewalt durch Partner oder Ex-Partner betroffen sind, der auf ältere Menschen ausgerichteten betrüge-rischen bzw. mit Täuschung und Vertrauensmissbrauch verknüpften Eigentums- und Vermö-gensdelikte sowie auf die Problematik des Nichterkennens nicht natürlicher Todesfälle bei hochaltrigen und pflegebedürftigen Menschen. Vor dem Hintergrund der verfügbaren Res- sourcen wurden die Schwerpunkte der praktischen Umsetzung vor allem auf die Problemfel-der der Viktimisierung in familialen Pflegebeziehungen sowie der Gewalt in Partnerschaften gelegt. Die Projektkomponenten wurden von einem interdisziplinären Team von Wissen-schaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern initiiert und begleitet. Der dem Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend vorgelegte Bericht stellt für die Schwerpunktbereiche des Programms jeweils Konzepte und Handlungsansätze, die getroffenen Maßnahmen und deren Umsetzung, Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Beglei-tung, aus dem Modul hervorgegangene Produkte sowie Schlussfolgerungen und Handlungs-empfehlungen dar

Cueva de los Torrejones revisited. New insights on the paleoecology of inland Iberia during the Late Pleistocene

34 p.The interior of the Iberian Peninsula has orographic conditions that make this territory especially vulnerable to Quaternary climate oscillations and which actually could have made it decisive for Paleolithic human populations at critical points. For this reason, the information provided by paleontological sites is important for reconstructing climatic and environmental conditions during the Late Pleistocene and understanding how they influenced the species that inhabited them, including humans. Nevertheless, the archaeo-paleontological record is scarce in central Iberia for the Late Pleistocene. A central Iberian site that is key to addressing this issue is Cueva de los Torrejones, which was discovered and excavated during the nineties. Clues indicating the presence of Neandertal populations near the cave site were announced during prior field excavations, including Neandertal remains, Middle Paleolithic artifacts, and evidence of anthropic exploitation of faunal resources at the site. Here we report the new results from the recent excavations and research, including detailed studies on stratigraphy, micromorphology, macro and microvertebrate paleontology, physical and molecular anthropology, taphonomy and zooarchaeology, and analysis of lithic and pottery remains. Our research has led to the detection of three Prehistoric chronologies recorded at the site. The oldest episode corresponds to between MIS 5 and MIS 4 in which the cave was used by carnivores. The second episode is represented by a faunal association dated to 30.0 ka cal BP and is indicative of cooler and more arid environmental conditions and, therefore, compatible with the worsening climate detected previously for MIS 3 in this area. The last episode corresponds to the Chalcolithic, directly dated to ~5000 cal BP in which humans used the cavity for funerary purposes. The DNA analysis of the human remain was assigned to mtDNA haplogroup K, which was originated in the Near East and reached western Europe through the Neolithic expansion. Human occupation during the Paleolithic has been ruled out, including Paleolithic human remains and any kind of anthropic intervention on the Hermann’s tortoise and leopard as was previously proposed at the site.European Research CouncilJunta de Comunidades de Castilla la ManchaMinisterio de Ciencia e InnovaciónCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants

Genomic history of coastal societies from eastern South America

Sambaqui (shellmound) societies are among the most intriguing archaeological phenomena in pre-colonial South America, extending from approximately 8,000 to 1,000 years before present (yr bp) across 3,000 km on the Atlantic coast. However, little is known about their connection to early Holocene hunter-gatherers, how this may have contributed to different historical pathways and the processes through which late Holocene ceramists came to rule the coast shortly before European contact. To contribute to our understanding of the population history of indigenous societies on the eastern coast of South America, we produced genome-wide data from 34 ancient individuals as early as 10,000 yr bp from four different regions in Brazil. Early Holocene hunter-gatherers were found to lack shared genetic drift among themselves and with later populations from eastern South America, suggesting that they derived from a common radiation and did not contribute substantially to later coastal groups. Our analyses show genetic heterogeneity among contemporaneous Sambaqui groups from the southeastern and southern Brazilian coast, contrary to the similarity expressed in the archaeological record. The complex history of intercultural contact between inland horticulturists and coastal populations becomes genetically evident during the final horizon of Sambaqui societies, from around 2,200 yr bp, corroborating evidence of cultural change

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.Open access funding provided by Max Planck Society. This project has received funding by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 803147-RESOLUTION (to S.T.), no. 771234-PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), no. 864358 (to K.M.), no. 724703 and no. 101019659 (to K.H.). K.H. is also supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG FOR 2237). E.A. has received funding from the Van de Kamp fonds. PACEA co-authors of this research benefited from the scientific framework of the University of Bordeaux’s IdEx Investments for the Future programme/GPR Human Past. A.G.-O. is supported by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558). L. Sineo, M.L. and D.C. have received funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) PRIN 2017 grants 20177PJ9XF and 20174BTC4R_002. H. Rougier received support from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences of CSUN and the CSUN Competition for RSCA Awards. C.L.S. and T. Saupe received support from the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (project no. 2014-2020.4.01.16-0030) and C.L.S. received support from the Estonian Research Council grant PUT (PRG243). S. Shnaider received support from the Russian Science Foundation (no. 19-78-10053).Peer reviewe

Reconstructing the Deep Population History of Central and South America

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least 9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by 4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

: Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.Peer reviewe

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic