SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Jail is not top of most people's bucket list of places to visit, but for some it is becoming increasingly attractive. I had heard anecdotal stories of homeless in the UK committing petty crimes in the hope of being given a warm bed and a meal, but in Japan it seems that the elderly are taking things to a whole new level:
Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave - the proportion of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has been steadily increasing for 20 years. The BBC's Ed Butler asks why.
At a halfway house in Hiroshima - for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community - 69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.
"I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me - perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail," he says.
"So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: 'Look, I took this.'"
The plan worked. This was Toshio's first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence.
Small, slender, and with a tendency to giggle, Toshio looks nothing like a habitual criminal, much less someone who'd threaten women with knives. But after he was released from his first sentence, that's exactly what he did.
"I went to a park and just threatened them. I wasn't intending to do any harm. I just showed the knife to them hoping one of them would call the police. One did."
Altogether, Toshio has spent half of the last eight years in jail.
I ask him if he likes being in prison, and he points out an additional financial upside - his pension continues to be paid even while he's inside.
"It's not that I like it but I can stay there for free," he says. "And when I get out I have saved some money. So it is not that painful."
Toshio represents a striking trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, a rapidly growing proportion of crimes is carried about by over-65s. In 1997 this age group accounted for about one in 20 convictions but 20 years later the figure had grown to more than one in five - a rate that far outstrips the growth of the over-65s as a proportion of the population (though they now make up more than a quarter of the total).
To my mind, there is something wrong with the way we take care of the elderly or those who are significantly poorer than the average when their most attractive option is jail.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday January 31 2019, @07:59PM (15 children)
Oh sure, THAT'S what's behind this, not growing wealth inequality and breakdown of the social safety net. Right. Not *enough* kids. Were you born this stupid and evil, or was it a lifestyle choice?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @08:16PM (4 children)
Once again Azuma Hazuki sacrifices her own mental health to argue with a paid shill.
Good work.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @06:45AM (3 children)
Aww, you care about me :) Don't worry, that didn't abuse my SAN score hardly at all; I've seen such awful things that some random pissant on the intertubes doesn't even register. Again, my flaming retorts are for the benefit of anyone who might come by, see that giant floating Baby Ruth in the meme pool, and think "ya know he's got a point, I should take a bite of that..."
Think of it as a profane, area-of-effect noetic vaccination program if that helps.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:08PM (2 children)
Ok, it's driving me nuts and Googly Goggles ain't helping.
What is a "SAN Score?"
Being old as dirt, it's likely yet another modern term I'm unfamiliar with, groovy man.
We have SPODIE's on my lawn, all are welcome!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 02 2019, @05:22PM (1 child)
Short for Sanity, in the vein of INT, WIS, and so on from tabletop games. I've never actually played any of them, but this one is from Call of Cthulhu, where having a separate Sanity variable makes a certain kind of sense.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday February 02 2019, @08:37PM
Ah, in my youth I played a lot of D&D and Axis and Allies, but never Call of Cthulhu.
Thanks, it seems obvious in retrospect.
Peace out!!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @08:29PM (7 children)
In nature, over the long term, the species will bear more children so that the chances of one surviving is higher if there is no "safety net". Survival to adulthood is damn near guaranteed in the well developed "white" countries, so the birthrate is much lower, and mom can go out and her hair and nails done.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @07:16AM (6 children)
Oh, this again. Yeah, yeah, "the $RACIAL_SLURS are outbreedin' us!" Has it occurred to you yet that a proper economic model, not even a post-scarcity one, would do an easy end-run around this whole problem?
No, of course it didn't; you're marinated in zero-sum thinking because it justifies your no doubt "scientific" racism. God, why are all the trolls so bloody predictable and transparent? There really must be fewer ideas in the hate-o-sphere than most people think.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @07:56AM (5 children)
Wow! You are so easily triggered!
You see poor white trash with huge families also. High birth rates during hardship is perfectly natural. And prosperous countries are suffering low birth rates. Nothing "racial" about it. But since you brought it up, show me one non-white prosperous country! You should get off the internet. It's filling your head full of garbage.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @08:21AM (4 children)
Some parts of it are attempting to, but they're not succeeding, hence the pushback :)
So let me get this straight: your new strategy to stop me from calling out straining, steaming, grunting, stenching bullshit is to...what exactly? Feign concern for my health? Lie through your teeth about your incredibly transparent, obvious motives? This doesn't seem very effective. Perhaps you might want to "git gud," as the children say these days.
Oh, would heaven I could see the hashes of the AC's IP addresses. Seems I've got myself a new fanboi~
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @08:35PM (3 children)
Seems I've got myself a new fanboi~
You do! I like you a lot! You're really funny, and so contradictory! You hate the truth for its presentation, a pair of brown shoes in a world of tuxedos.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 01 2019, @08:51PM (2 children)
Except none of that is true...? Aside from the funny part; I've inherited my mother's sarcasm. Now, you can keep trying to troll me, and I can just ignore you and/or keep dropping -1s on you, if you like. Orrrr you can go find like, literally anything else more productive to do, but who am I kidding?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:40PM (1 child)
Well, see, that's the thing, you came to me, not the other way around, You could have ignored me, but you didn't, so who's the "fanboi"? Did the rant make you feel better?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:05AM
'K, bye.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31 2019, @08:50PM (1 child)
Nature has one safety net - children. Because you decided not to have any, you are demanding that everyone else provide you with a safety net.
(Score: 5, Informative) by acid andy on Thursday January 31 2019, @09:03PM
Pretty sure in most other species, the offspring don't take care of their parents in old age. More often than not, they come into direct competition with them. But I guess all you know how to do is fuck up the planet.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?