(TOKYO) The number of elderly criminals being caught by Japanese police has rocketed, the justice ministry said Friday, with pensioners committing almost 50 times more assaults than two decades ago.
The number of criminals aged 65 or older booked by police in 2011 increased by 475 from the previous year to 48,637, more than six times as many as 20 years ago, the ministry said in its latest crime white paper.
Most elderly crimes were shoplifting or theft, but violent crimes were also on the rise, the ministry said.
A significant increase was seen in the rates of violent crime committed by the elderly, with 49.5 times more assaults than in 1992, and 8.7 times more bookings for bodily injury, the white paper said.
In one more extreme example, local media reported in April that a 97-year-old man with a walking aid was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly attacked an 84-year-old woman with a Japanese sword in central Japan.
However, the trend of rising crime among the elderly goes against that of society at large, where the overall number of crimes in Japan fell 5.8 per cent on year, to 2.14 million in 2011, its ninth straight year of decline.
Japan's population is ageing rapidly, but, says the paper, not quickly enough to account for all these crimes.
"The speed of the increase of the number of elderly criminals overwhelms the increase of the population group," the white paper said.
The number of Japanese aged 65 or over stood at 29.75 million as of 1 October 2011, or around 23 per cent of the approximately 128 million population, an all-time high and one of the highest proportions of elderly people in the world.
Source: http://news.insing.com/tabloid/elderly-criminal-soar-greying-japan/id-eb643f00
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