murder.booklocker.com

Tucked away in this article from October, 1987, are some tidbits for anyone writing about crime committed BY senior citizens, not against them. For instance:

Tax reductions, rent control, subsidized senior citizen housing and recreational centers, increased public advocacy, Medicare, pension guarantees and increasing Social Security benefits–all have helped bring the elderly back into the mainstream with a vengeance. They are more physically able to get what they believe they deserve, and more seem willing to use force to get it. Figures on admissions to state prisons, for example, show that, compared to younger people, a much higher percentage of older people are being incarcerated for murder and manslaughter.

Other statistics confirm that older people are committing more serious crimes than in the past. From 1976 to 1985, the arrest rate for rape committed by men over 65 increased 155 percent. For men 60 to 64, the increase was 112 percent. During the same 10 years, the rate of arrests among the same two groups increased 39 percent and 60 percent for all sex offenses, and 30 percent and 33 percent for larceny-theft.

The elderly woman with the butcher’s knife that is on the cover of my book seems to be an image that may come back to haunt us.

Another quote:

Even these figures only hint at the real increase in crime by the elderly. I believe the facts are obscured by a double standard of law enforcement toward older men and women. Except for the most serious crimes, such as murder, police and prosecutors are inclined to overlook offenses by the elderly, especially women. They often don’t make arrests, or if they do, the charges are dismissed. There are probably no more than a thousand women over 65 in U.S. prisons.

This one reminds me of a short story I wrote where no one will believe a woman who practically confesses to several crimes, simply because she is older! When the police finally arrest her, she tells the detective that no jury will convict her.