Senior Crime On The Rise In Japan

Japan has the world's oldest population: 27.3 per cent of its citizens are 65 or older. Among all the challenges those numbers mean for a society, there is an unexpected one: senior crime. 

This story by Shiho Fukada for Bloomberg focuses on the increasing number of complaints and arrests involving elderly people. The main reason seems to be the increasing number of seniors living alone, who often don't have a family to turn to for help. 

Once in prison, additional problems arise, with annual medical costs increasing by 80 per cent from a decade before, and guards having to deal with bathing and toileting. 

"At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant."

Despite the number of seniors living alone having grown since 1980, neither the public nor the private sector have taken care of one of the problems connected to this situation—why some women feel safer in prison.