Chapter 5  Trends and Treatment of Elderly Offenders in Foreign Countries

Section 1  Trends with Elderly Offenders

  Comparisons will be made between the seven foreign countries of the Republic of Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.A. and Japan on trends with elderly offenders based on publicly available data from various viewpoints.
  The scope of what is considered to be a crime and the constituent elements of an offence differs and methods of compiling statistics are not the same between these seven countries and Japan. In addition, the legal system and social backgrounds also differ. Hence these differences must be taken into consideration when comparing trends with elderly offenders between these foreign countries and Japan.
  “Number of persons cleared”, “number of persons convicted”, “number of persons imprisoned” and terms for “theft”, “injury/assault”, and “homicide” used to compare the type of offense in Germany, the U.S.A., and Japan refers to the following. In addition, since the age categorizations in these countries' data differ, it is difficult to find the figures for those over 65 years of age uniformly across the countries. In many cases, however, 60 years of age is used in the categorization, and hence elderly refers to those aged 60 or older in this section (except that elderly in the number of persons cleared in the Republic of Korea refers to those aged 61 or older, the number of persons convicted in Italy refers to those aged 65 or older, and the number of persons imprisoned in the U.S.A. refers to those aged 55 or older, respectively).
Number of persons cleared
Republic of Korea: The number of persons cleared by the police, etc. for penal code offenses (Source: “Analytical Report on Crime”)
Germany: The number of persons cleared by the police, etc. for crimes (Straftat) excluding traffic related violations. (Source: “Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik”)
Sweden: The number of persons cleared by the police, etc. for crimes against the penal code (Source: “Sveriges officiella statistik (English version)”)
U.S.A.: The number of persons arrested by the police, etc. for violent crimes or property crimes (excluding arson) (Source: Estimated figures and “Crime in the United States”)
Japan: The number of persons cleared for non-traffic penal code offenses (Source: Crime Statistics by National Police Agency)
France, Italy, and the U.K.: The number of persons cleared was not available.
The number of persons convicted
France: The number of persons convicted for serious crimes (crime) or minor crimes (délit) (Source: “Annuaire statistique de la Justice”)
Germany: The number of persons convicted for crimes (Straftat) excluding traffic related violations (Source: “Rechtspflege Fachserie10/Reihe 1”)
Italy: The number of persons convicted for crimes (delitti) excluding illegal acts (contravvenzioni) (Source: “Statistiche giudiziarie penali”)
Sweden: The number of persons convicted for crimes against the penal code (Source: “Sveriges officiella statistik (English version)”)
U.K.: The number of persons convicted for notifiable offences (offenses reported to the Home Office by the police) (Source: “Criminal statistics England and Wales”)
U.S.A.: The number of persons convicted for violent crime and property crime felonies at state courts (Source: Estimated figures and “Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics”)
Japan: The number of persons convicted in the court of first instance (Source: The General Secretariat of the Supreme Court)
The number of persons convicted was not available for the Republic of Korea.
Number of persons imprisoned
Republic of Korea: The number of persons imprisoned (including those sentenced to protective custody and fine defaulters detained in work-houses) (Source: “White Paper on Crime”)
France: The number of persons imprisoned/unsentenced inmates (Source: “Annuaire statistique de la Justice”)
Germany: The number of persons imprisoned (Source: “Rechtspflege Fachserie10/Reihe 4.1 (Strafvollzug)”)
Italy: The number of persons imprisoned/unsentenced inmates (including those detained in criminal psychiatric hospitals and those detained temporarily) (Source: “Dati statistici sulla popolazione penitenziaria”)
Sweden: The number of persons imprisoned (Source: “Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention”)
U.K.: The number of persons imprisoned in England and Wales (including those detained in penal institutions due to unpaid fines) (Source: “Offender Management Caseload Statistics”)
U.S.A.: The number of federal and state inmates who were sentenced to imprisonment for over 1 year (Source: Estimated figures and “Prisoners in 1997, 2006”)
Japan: The number of person imprisoned (Source: “Annual Report of Statistics on Correction”)
Theft
Germany: The number of persons cleared; simple theft (Diebstahl ohne erschwerende Umstände)/aggravated theft (Diebstahl unter erschwerenden Umständen), the number of persons convicted; theft (Diebstahl) and burglary (Einbruchdiebstahl)
U.S.A.: Larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and burglary
Japan: Theft
Injury, assault
Germany: Severe injury (the number of persons cleared; physical injury by dangerous methods (Gefährliche Körperverletzung) and serious physical injury (Schwere Körperverletzung), the number of persons convicted; physical injury by dangerous methods (Gefährliche Körperverletzung)/minor injury (Körperverletzung))
U.S.A.: Aggravated assault
Japan: Injury and assault
Homicide
Germany: premeditated murder (Mord, excludes attempts for the number of persons convicted) and manslaughter (Totschlag) (murder at the victim's request (Tötung auf Verlangen) is included in the number of persons cleared)
U.S.A.: Murder and non-negligent manslaughter (excluding attempts)
Japan: Homicide