Granny Get Your Gun: Is America on the verge of a geriatric crime wave?

[marmar]

from In These Times:




Granny Get Your Gun
Is America on the verge of a geriatric crime wave?

By Nathan Comp


Crime is generally a young person’s game, but that hasn’t stopped an ever-growing number of older Americans from breaking the law. Following a decline through most of the ’90s, over the past 10 years arrest rates for those over 50 have shot up 85 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Experts predict that these numbers will continue to climb well into the next decade, as 35 million baby boomers expand America’s graying population from 16 to nearly 25 percent.

Is America on the precipice of a geriatric crime wave?

“The numbers are definitely going to keep going up, no doubt about it,” says Ronald Akers, a criminology professor at the University of Florida. “People are healthier and living longer, which may make crime an attractive option for some older people.”

Geriatric crime isn’t a new phenomenon, nor is it unique to America. Several countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and South Korea, have reported substantial increases in the number of elderly arrests, blaming the rises on rapidly growing—and marginalized—elderly populations. But none have seen problems on the scale of Japan, which saw arrest rates of residents over 70 triple from 9,478 to 28,892 between 2000 and 2006. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4560/granny_get_your_gun

[rurallib]

1. yep.

it can get a person 3 squares and health care.

[Coyote_Bandit]

4. Exactly

and it's a step up from living under a bridge or in a cardboard box. Go to prison and you can get a job and be included in a social group. Something that becomes difficult to finance on the outside when one is unemployed.

[Ian David]

2. Yes, we are.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vdeQNwWfF3Y/RjPCI2k0OcI/AAAAAAAAADo/Zh_DKD1XczY/s400/hells+grannies.JPG

[baldguy]

3. Hell's Grannies

:rofl:

[htuttle]

10. "Going in Style"

Willie: What if we get shot?
(silence)
Joe: What's the difference?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. 
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here] to review the message board rules.

[damntexdem]

6. Watch out, here we come!

And they don't call us Boomers for nothing!

;-)

[bemildred]

7. I find the corporate crime wave more compelling.

And the government crime wave. But go ahead, focus on old people. Lord knows everybody cowers when old people swagger down the street or belly up to the Starbucks counter.

[Joanne98]

8. That's because they've made everything but breathing illegal.

Over the last 35 years. So naturally crime goes up.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. hopefully they'll hold the gun pointed at their foot and find out why they can't drive either

rather than shoot another human at least