To deter crime by elderly, integrate aged in society
Written by changthai11 on Sunday, November 9th, 2008
To deter crime by elderly, integrate aged in society
The Yomiuri Shimbun
It is an urgent task to stop the number of elderly criminal offenders from rising.
The 2008 white paper on crime, compiled by the Justice Ministry and released Friday, reports the circumstances and treatment of elderly criminal offenders. It notes that while the number of people aged 65 or older has doubled in the past 20 years, the number of elderly criminal offenders has risen fivefold in the same period.
Last year, a record-high 48,600 senior citizens were arrested on suspicion of committing crimes, excluding traffic-related offenses. The number is expected to increase further when members of the baby-boom generation enter their senior years.
A rise in the number of crimes committed by senior citizen is a negative aspect of the aging society. As the white paper says, countermeasures for the problem should be pursued by society as a whole, so support in this endeavor is needed from a wide variety of fields, including the courts, the welfare system and companies.
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Elderly a burden on prisons
Medical expenses at prisons and detention houses now total 2 billion yen annually. As the number of aged inmates will continue to rise, drug costs will further balloon, putting further administrative burdens on these facilities. To limit the cost to the taxpayer, it is important to deter criminal offenses by the elderly.
The white paper points out that the typical elderly offender lives alone, is estranged from his or her relatives and is financially unstable. The largest number of crimes involving senior citizens relate to theft, including shoplifting, which constituted 65 percent of the total.
The main reasons elderly people said they offended were “I was experiencing severe economic circumstances,” “I wanted to save money,” and “I was hungry.” As for female elderly offenders, it is noteworthy that many shoplifted even though they were not short of money at the time of their offense. Such women, the white paper notes, felt isolated.
Theft tends to be a repeat crime. Even if prosecutors decide not to indict an elderly offender, they should take comprehensive measures to prevent recidivism, including checking on the offender regularly.
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Vicious circle must be broken
As for elderly people who have served a prison sentence, policies are needed to help them break the vicious circle of living in poverty then turning to crime. There are also senior citizens who want to live behind bars to escape poverty. The government should establish halfway houses and rehabilitation programs for elderly ex-convicts.
For discharged elderly prisoners with a strong desire to work, providing the opportunity of employment is the most effective way to prevent recidivism. The Justice Ministry, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and other concerned organizations should cooperate to find companies to hire such people.
For released elderly prisoners who have no relatives and are unable to work for physical reasons, arrangements should be made to enable them to enter welfare facilities, such as nursing care homes.
The Justice Ministry is planning to ask private facilities offering support and rehabilitation to released convicts, which mainly have accepted young parolees, to take on released elderly prisoners.
To prevent senior citizens from reoffending, it is vital that they are not isolated from society.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 9, 2008)
