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.
===
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 import!ant to deter criminal offenses by the elderly. (222 words)
______ minutes ______ seconds
Full Text >>> cafe.daum.net/japanologist