【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.247: Elderly people and crime

As shown in Figure 1, the number of crime cases known by the police decreased by half, from 1,502,951 in 2011 to 748,559 in 2019. The crime ratio, which is the number of crime cases per 100,000 population, also decreased from 1,175.9 to 593.3 in the same period. The number of criminal offenders that were arrested decreased from 305,631 to 192,607 (Figure 2). It is also worth noting that the number of juvenile criminals aged between 14 and 19 decreased by 74% from 77,696 to 19,914.

As explained in Column No.51, cases of fraud that target vulnerable elderly people have become a significant social problem. A typical example called "It's me, Fraud" is an attempt to extract money from people over the telephone. As shown in Figure 3, the number of cases in which the police recognized "it's me, Fraud" was 6,697 in 2019, and the damage amounted to JPY 11,160 million (US$ 103 million).

Furthermore, shoplifting crimes by elderly people have also become a social problem. The total number of arrests for shoplifting crimes decreased from 101,504 in 2008 to 66,154 in 2017, but the number of shoplifting crimes by the elderly did not fall (Figure 4). Thus, the percentage of elderly people that were arrested for shoplifting crimes rose from 26.6% to 39.5% during this period.

Figure 1 Number of crime cases known to the police and the crime ratio

Figure 2 Number of arrested criminals by age group

Figure 3 It's me, Fraud

Figure 4 Shoplifting