L. Rene Bergeron has a research focus in several areas relating to elder maltreatment, neglect, and exploitation on both the state and national levels. Her primary focus is on the physical abuse of community dwelling elders and the accompanying practice dilemmas of servicing this population. Her research includes analyzing the decisional factors used by protection workers when they intervene in suspected cases of maltreatment. She is particularly interested in the ethical conflict between the principles of client's self-determination and the worker's duty-to-protect. The use of risk-factors as a method to assist in the practitioner's critical thinking is woven into this research agenda. She suggests that some cases of elder maltreatment by family members would benefit from a family preservation approach, suggesting that many cases of elder abuse may fall into the category of domestic violence. Currently her research focus is on the analysis of state laws and their varied definitions of key terminology and how this lack of conformity is a confounding factor in conducting national surveys and studies on elder maltreatment. She continues to present her work at national and international conferences and she is published in various journals such as Social Work, Gerontological Social Work, and Families in Society. Additionally, she has authored chapters in several books such as the Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence, Health Consequence of Abuse in the Family, and Family Poverty in Diverse Contexts. She is an active reviewer on the editorial board of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect.