Japan has the largest population of people over 65 (25%). All sorts of theories about why the elderly are committing more major and minor crimes but an interesting point made about those imprisoned for their crimes:
“Thousands of [elderly people] are winding up in prisons. National police figures for 2015 show the number of people age 65 and older arrested for criminal offenses makes up 20 percent of all arrests, which totals nearly 48,000.
The Japanese government is spending tens of millions on constructing prison wards specifically designed to cater to a growing number of elderly inmates. But Shinko warns that nicer prison facilities might have the opposite effect of deterring crime.
If you steal and get away with it, you end up with free groceries or money.
But “If you are arrested, you still get a roof over your head, you’re fed three times a day and you get health checkups. So it’s sort of a win-win situation either way,” says Shinko.
It’s a vexing policy problem for Japan, and a glimpse of yet another difficult challenge as more and more of its population ages past retirement.”
East Devon Watch 