Columns
SENIOR POWER: ‘Special consideration’ for elders who commit crimes?
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Helen for this column, which is #200 in an outstanding series contributed for Planet readers!
Crime is yet another aspect of the problems aging populations are likely to experience… and sometimes to cause. Elder abuse crimes -- that is, crimes against senior citizens or in which elders are victimized -- fall into four main categories: physical abuse, physical neglect by a caregiver, psychological (mental) abuse, and financial (fiduciary) abuse, including theft of such personal items as cash, investments, real property and jewelry belonging to an elder. Recent criminal activity among senior citizens has been attributed to such things as handling the hours of daily loneliness, novelty-seeking, poverty, anxiety over the future, money having become important, financial stress, a lifelong habit, the early stages of dementia, topping up pension benefits, and fear of being put in a retirement home.
In most nations, young men still commit a disproportionate share of crimes. Bloomberg Business attributes increased criminal activity among senior citizens to loneliness and poverty. But as year 2015 ends, rates of crimes committed by senior citizens are rising in Britain and other European and Asian nations, while the U.S. appears to have escaped the trend.
Britain
London police state that arrests of people age 65+ rose10% from March 2009 to March 2014, even as arrests of under-65s fell 24%. The number of elderly British prison inmates has been rising at a rate more than three times that of the overall prison population.
In London's Hatton Garden diamond district, thieves made off with millions in cash and gems from a heavily secured vault. Age was the most striking thing about the crew when police arrested nine suspects. The youngest suspect was 42, most much older, including two men in their mid-seventies. At a preliminary hearing, a 74-year-old suspect, described by his London neighbors as an affable retiree who loves dogs, said he couldn't understand a clerk's questions because he was hard of hearing. A limping 59-year-old was said to be a former truck driver. Another defendant runs a plumbing business in the London suburbs.
Most of the men charged in the jewel heist appeared to be ordinary blokes. The perpetrators were neither isolated nor impoverished. Prosecutors said the thieves disabled an elevator and climbed down the shaft, then used a high-powered drill to cut into the vault. Once inside, they removed valuables from safe deposit boxes, hauling them away in bags and bins and loading them into a waiting van. Although their faces were obscured by headgear, the tabloids nicknamed each based on distinctive characteristics seen on camera. Two -- dubbed Tall Man and Old Man -- "struggle to move a bin before they drag it outside. … Old Man leans on the bin, struggling for breath."
Richard Hobbs, a University of Essex sociologist who studies crime in Britain, says the country's criminal underworld has changed dramatically in recent years. Rather than congregating in pubs or on street corners, many criminals now live seemingly ordinary lives, raising families and running legitimate businesses. They still participate in crime, but only with trusted associates. "They don't see themselves as criminals, they see themselves as businessmen. … That makes it easier for elderly criminals to stay in the game. Older criminals often have extensive networks to draw on for needed expertise. And some essential skills, such as money laundering, don't require physical vigor.”
Germany
In 2005, the Opa Bande ("Grandpa Gang") consisting of three German men in their sixties and seventies was convicted of robbing more than €1 million ($1.09 million) from 12 banks. They testified that they were trying to top up their pension benefits. One defendant said he used his share to buy a farm where he could live because he was afraid of being put in a retirement home.
Geriatric crime poses special challenges. During Grandpa Gang’s trial, members described how a 74-year-old co-defendant almost botched a 2003 bank heist by slipping on a patch of ice, forcing them to take extra time to help him into the getaway car. And there was another problem, his co-defendant pal told the court: "We had to stop constantly so he could pee."
The Netherlands. Belgium
In the Netherlands, a 2010 study found a sharp rise in arrests and incarceration of elderly people. In developed countries, they tend to be "more assertive, less submissive, and more focused on individual social and economic needs" than earlier generations were, says Bas van Alphen, a Free University of Brussels psychology professor, who has studied criminal behavior among the elderly. "When they see in their peer group that someone has much more money than they do, they are eager to get that," he says. Older people may also commit crimes because they feel isolated. "I had one patient who stole candies to handle the hours of loneliness every day," describing such behavior as "novelty-seeking."
Japan
"Battling the surge in elderly shoplifters" headlines November 18, 2015’s Japan Today, a Tokyo-based online newspaper. During the 2003-2013 decade, crime by people age 65+ more than doubled. Elders accounted for more shoplifting than teenagers.
Dabbing her eyes with a lace handkerchief, a 68-year-old Tokyo Small Claims Court defendant explained “I’m by myself and feel uneasy about the future. So I tried as much as possible to refrain from spending money.” She was charged with having attempted to steal 17 items of food and clothing valued at 10,536 yen. [1 Japanese Yen = 85 US Dollars] When apprehended she had 6,630 yen [$54.] on her person. Her pretext -- “anxious over the future” and “money has become important” – belied her appearance of being reasonably well off. She receives a monthly pension of about 90,000 yen [$730.]. It was her eighth arrest.
According to data from the National Police Agency, the percentage of shoplifting cases nationwide that resulted in criminal prosecutions of individuals age 65+ rose from 18.3% of the total in 2004 to 32.7% in 2013. Last year’s 20,667 cases surpassed the second largest demographic—teens from age 14 to 19—which declined over the same 10-year period. Some argue that the increase might be because spotting an elderly person in the act of stealing tends to be easier than a teen.
Theft poses a real problem for retailers. According to the Shinjuku-based National Shoplifting Prevention Organization, which works to discourage shoplifting, annual losses nationwide are estimated at approximately 460 billion yen—a figure at least 10 times higher than the amount lost by victims of the notorious “It’s me, send money” phone scams. Scammers consider morning the time to phone their victims, because housewives and elderly are alone at home then. The Organization wants to treat shoplifting as a crime, but acknowledges that many elderly people feel lonely and want someone to care about them.
Having an elderly parent nabbed for theft can also be rough on the offspring. Police phoned a 36-year old woman at her work to inform her that her father had been caught attempting to steal a 450-yen boxed meal from a supermarket. “The cash registers were all crowded,” the father explained. He had 5,000 yen in his wallet. After looking after his sick wife for two years, her father had taken to drink, and then, to keep occupied, to pachinko. [An addictive Japanese gambling game played on a vertical pinball machine.] “My father had always been ‘baka majime’ [honest to the extreme],” she said. “He worked for a local company for 40 years, and I supposed his pension and savings were sufficient…” Soon afterwards, her fellow workers began gossiping that she was the “child of a shoplifter.” She felt she had no choice but to resign. The loss of income was a blow to her family. Her husband was disinclined to having a “criminal” living under the same roof. … Nice cops, colleagues, family, spouse.
Japan Today readers’ comments included:
- It is an act of desperation in a time of rising taxes… however, there are plenty of elderly I see every day that seem to have a strong sense of entitlement…
- It's a combination of post-retirement poverty, only exacerbated by the tax hike & ever-increasing cost of living, an overwhelming sense of entitlement borne from decades in a patriarchal society & total disregard for others.
- I actually see this happen a lot with the elderly in Japan. They simply walk to the front of the queue in a convenience store and then pretend that they didn't notice the 10 people waiting. [And I would add that elderly men perform likewise in public lavatories.]
Australia
“Dramatic rise in Victorian seniors caught shoplifting” shouts January 21, 2015’s Melbourne’s Herald Sun. Light-fingered geriatrics are being caught in growing numbers, with five shoplifters aged 70+ nabbed each week in Victoria. Of 674 accused shoplifters aged 60+ in 2013-2014, 200 were 70-79 years old, and 63 were aged 80+. The Council on the Ageing’s chief executive said it was possible the thieves were under financial stress, had a lifelong habit, or were suffering the early stages of dementia. He said the ranks of senior citizens stealing could swell as our population ages.
The number of accused shoplifters aged 60+ rose 20% in 2013-14 — up 29% among those aged 80+ — but teens remain the biggest problem. Checkpoint Systems Australia’s managing director called for an end to cautioning first-time juvenile offenders. “Rather than a rap on the knuckles there should be compulsory community work,” he said. “If you steal from a house and get caught you could end up in prison but what real punishment do you get for shoplifting?”
Germany
In 2005, the Opa Bande ("Grandpa Gang") consisting of three German men in their sixties and seventies was convicted of robbing more than €1 million ($1.09 million) from 12 banks. They testified that they were trying to top up their pension benefits. One defendant said he used his share to buy a farm where he could live because he was afraid of being put in a retirement home.
Geriatric crime poses special challenges. During Grandpa Gang’s trial, members described how a 74-year-old co-defendant almost botched a 2003 bank heist by slipping on a patch of ice, forcing them to take extra time to help him into the getaway car. And there was another problem, his co-defendant pal told the court: "We had to stop constantly so he could pee."
South Korea
Rising poverty rates among the elderly are being blamed in some countries. In South Korea, 45% of people over age 65 live below the poverty line, the highest rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development developed nations. "The government should make an all-out effort to expand the social safety net and provide jobs and dwellings for the elderly," the Korea Times newspaper editorializes, warning that by 2026, more than 20% of the country's population will be over 65. This month South Korea reported that, from 2011 to 2013, crimes committed by people age 65+ rose 12.2% —including a 40% increase in violent crime— outstripping a 9.6% rise in the country's elderly population during the period.
U.S.A.
Has the U.S. escaped this trend? According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of elderly crime among people aged 55-65 has decreased since the 1980s. The growth of the elderly prison inmate population mainly reflects longer sentences, especially for drug-related crimes.
Walmart has become a fixture in Americana. Shoplifters cost Walmart a lot of money. UC,B economics professor and Clinton administration cabinet member Robert Reich crusades to expose the problem of income inequality in the United States. He considers that Walmart spies on its employees. His film, Inequality for All, is available as a BPL dvd.
Responding to the question of how often stealing occurs at Walmart, a man posted this: My wife worked in loss prevention for Walmart as an in-store, patrolling the store in street clothes. She was promoted to regional loss prevention supervisor, where she supervised in-stores and conducted investigations of theft by employees, associates, as Walmart calls them. The store loses far more money to employee theft and fraud schemes. She would catch 2-3 shoplifters on a good week; the in-store who trained her routinely got that many almost every day.,
Non-employees who steal from Walmart fall into several categories: petty thieves who steal one or two relatively low-cost items at a time; serial thieves who steal mostly in order to return the items at the service desk one at a time for cash; and theft ring members who would come into the store and take single items every day, or would take a lot of items out in a single haul.
One theft ring was composed of senior citizens who all lived within a few doors of one another. One would steal an item like an appliance or a tool, and another would return it for cash. They were pretty good at what they did, and the few times they got caught, the courts were reluctant to punish a senior citizen too severely. Walmart has a "prosecute everything" policy (as do many retailers). If they catch you, the police are going to be called, and you're going to be cited or jailed.
A Hopatcong, New Jersey woman was twice found guilty of shoplifting at Morris County Walmarts -- even after agreeing to stay out of the stores. She appealed in Superior Court.
Sixty-four year old Johanna Cassimore, who uses the name JoAnn Berry, was ordered by the Municipal Court Judge to stay out of all Walmart stores, everywhere.
She was found guilty of stealing, convicted of shoplifting the $78 worth of vitamins, a watch and dog treats at Roxbury Walmart, sentenced to 20 days of community service, and ordered to pay $1,083 in fines and penalties. She appealed the conviction. Because she is on disability – usually using a motorized scooter when she shops – and has a small income, she was routinely granted a public defender for the municipal court appearances and appeals. According to documents, Cassimore wrote to Superior Court: “I cannot afford the fines and know I was not treated fairly in court. I am a disabled senior citizen. I would not survive jail.” Details and developments of Ms. Cassimore/Berry’s case(s) are on the Internet!
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