You would expect the fire in the silver generation to die down a little bit, but statistics indicate otherwise. They are feisty, criminal minded and undeterred. According to the Japanese police, the number of elderly criminals being caught has increased drastically.
Reports by the Justice Ministry state that pensioners are committing almost 50 times more assaults than what they did two decades ago. In 2011, the number of criminals aged 65 or more, booked by police increased by 475 from the previous year to 48,637. This figure puts it at six times more that stats from two decades ago.
Although majority of the crimes committed by elderly are shoplifting or theft, violent crimes have also been on the rise. Statistics show that there is a significant increase with 49.5 times more assaults than in 1992 and 8.7 times more bookings for bodily injury. Incidents like the one where a 97-year old man was arrested on suspicion of attacking an 84-year old woman with a Japanese sword, has left the public shocked. Thankfully the overall trend for crime in Japan is on the downside. It has been so for the past nine years. I suppose this is the silver lining for today’s story. In any case, think twice before you annoy the grandma down the street, you never know how violent she gets!
[via The Standard]