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Teacher Tai, Shih-Mei was interviewed by The Storm Media
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2023/1/6
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Teacher Tai, Shih-Mei was interviewed by The Storm Media: The rate of 60-year-olds in prison is rising steadily, and there are more things to do besides improving the economy
The ratio of sixty-year-olds in prison is rising steadily. Apart from improving the economy, there are more things to do Huang Tianru 2023-01-05 09:10 When mentioning the elderly, most people think of them as fat sheep in the eyes of criminals; but In fact, the problem of crime by the elderly is becoming more and more serious in Taiwan. According to statistics, in recent years, the number and proportion of senior citizens in prisons and prisons in China have reached new highs. Last year (2022), the proportion of newly admitted seniors over the age of 60 exceeded 10% for the first time. Scholars said that the crime of the elderly is not only a judicial issue, but also combines economic, social, and medical aspects. The government must intervene and prevent it through more advanced and comprehensive national policies; otherwise, more and more elderly people will go to prison repeatedly, and even The helpless situation of dying in prison is bound to become a thorny issue in Taiwanese society. How fast is the number and proportion of domestic elderly crimes growing? According to statistics from the Ministry of Justice, about 30,000 people are newly imprisoned every year in China, and the proportion of elderly people over 60 years old only accounted for about 3 to 4%. However, in recent years, the number and proportion of "old" faces among inmates serving prison terms have been increasing. According to the latest statistics, as of the end of November last year, a total of 2,750 elderly people over the age of 60 were newly admitted to prison. Standing on the double-digit percentage for the first time. Among the 2,390 cases of the elderly in prison, 830 were public dangerous crimes , The highest rate is 34%, and more than 90% of them are related to the crime of unsafe driving caused by drunk driving, drug driving and other reasons. Followed by 402 cases of theft, 16.8%; 144 cases of fraud, 6%; 121 cases of injury, 5.1%; 62 cases of embezzlement, 2.6%; 45 cases of homicide, 1.9%; 43 cases of forgery , 1.8%, and 17 pieces each of gambling and damage. Another analysis of the age group of the elderly in prison shows that as of the end of November last year, among the total 4,745 inmates over the age of 60, it is not surprising that there were 4,024 elderly persons between the ages of 60 and 70, accounting for about 85%. There are also 721 people who are over 70 years old, and 53 of them are over 80 years old. LI,CHUN-HUNG, Director of the Addiction and Judicial Psychiatry Department of Jianan Nursing Home, said that most elderly people in China commit the crime of not driving safely. According to epidemiological research, the stage of alcohol addiction in a person's life is the most likely to be addicted to alcohol in addition to young adults, followed by just The elderly who have lost their focus of life after leaving the workplace, "Many elderly people have nothing to do after retirement. They either watch TV or drink at home all day long; in addition, they may not have enough legal awareness of drunk driving, so they don't think or know that drunk driving is such a serious matter, so they drink People who drank alcohol and continued to ride or drive out, only to be arrested.” The elderly accounted for a record high proportion of low-income households . The crimes of theft, fraud, and embezzlement that the elderly often commit are related to money and property. One can't help thinking, is it just like the term "dirty elderly" proposed by Japanese sociologist Takanori Fujita in 2015, in Taiwan, which is about to enter a super-aged society, more and more elderly people gradually lose their physical strength and ability to make a living due to old age , coupled with insufficient savings, and no children and grandchildren around to support and take care of them, will they be hungry and cold? According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number and proportion of elderly people in low-income households in China has been increasing in recent years. As of the third quarter of 2022, among the 287,000 registered low-income households nationwide, there are about 45,000 elderly people over the age of 65 , The ratio was 15.6%, a record high. In addition, among the 45,000 elderly people living alone listed by the county and city governments, more than 12,000 are from low- and middle-income households, and the ratio is as high as 28%. That is, more than 1 out of every 4 elderly people living alone is economically vulnerable. The above two statistics show that although "old" and "poor" cannot be directly equated, for a considerable proportion of people living at the bottom of society, aging and poverty are indeed often inseparable and follow each other, and unconsciously Let many people live as obscene old people, which greatly increases their risk of crime. Take the 70-year-old woman surnamed Xie who was recently arrested for pickpocketing in New Taipei City as an example. She is a habitual thief registered by the police. It turned out that Mrs. Xie lacked a regular job when she was young. Now that she is older, it is more difficult to make a living. She simply regards pickpocketing as her "main business" and goes to the market in Shuangbei area exclusively. , as long as there is a chance, she will steal from 1,200 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. But Mrs. Xie is old after all, and her hands, feet and reactions are not flexible enough, so she is often arrested when she loses her temper. In recent years alone, she has been arrested more than 20 times.Inflation made the pensions saved at a young age not enough for retirement . LI,CHUN-HUNG said that this generation of elderly people is facing changes in the modern family structure. Living alone is becoming more and more common. In terms of economy, in recent years, we have repeatedly encountered the rapid tightening of monetary policy after quantitative easing, which is linked to the national situation. As a result, many people have worked hard all their lives to save money, and in the end, inflation is not enough for retirement. As far as the impact is concerned, many elderly people were originally the targets of fraud targeted by people with intentions. Little do they know that the elderly as victims are often suffering, or lack of judgment due to aging brain function degeneration, or even temporary greed, so that in the end I was deceived, not to mention my savings, but also handed over important documents such as seals, passbooks, driver's licenses, and ID cards, and became an accomplice of a fraud group. However, economic factors are clearly not the whole picture of crime among the elderly. Regardless of the fact that most elderly people in China commit the crime of not being able to drive safely in the crime of public danger, in practice, it is often seen that what the elderly repeatedly steal may be very cheap things that are not even clearly needed by them; The fruit in the house, the potted plant in front of the neighbor's house, the general household items on the store shelf, etc., these criminal patterns obviously have nothing to do with poverty or economic weakness. The long-term lack of feeling of being valued and cared for will also lead to crime . Tai, Shih-Mei, an associate professor of the Department of Crime Prevention and Control at Ming Chuan University, said that behind the crimes of the elderly are often accompanied and reflected by deeper social issues, especially that many elderly people and their families or The severe alienation of the social network has led to long-term isolation and loneliness. "This part is similar to the problem of teenagers. It is like many older children who keep getting into trouble. In fact, they want to get the attention of adults. Some elderly people repeatedly commit petty crimes of petty theft. Subconsciously, I also want to get more care from my family.” Another message that the elderly may release after repeated crimes may be self-abandonment, or even declare to the world through criminal behavior: “I am very angry” and “I have a very bad life.” Good"...waiting for negative signals. However, in real life, a considerable proportion of these elderly people may have been receiving government living allowances and subsidies for a long time, that is, their basic food and clothing are no problem, so the crux of the problem is not the economy in the final analysis, but the long-term lack of attention and care a feeling of."In our society, there are not only "teenagers in ruins" (generally referring to teenagers from high-risk families who have been forgotten by society), but there are also problems of "old people in ruins" that need to be addressed squarely and resolved." Tai, Shih-Mei said with a sigh. Helpless, just as most of the ruined teenagers come from high-risk families, many seniors who repeat crimes also come from high-risk families with dysfunctional family functions, and the elderly may even be the perpetrators of domestic violence. Imagine that this group of people might spend their days drinking, abandoning their wives and children, or fighting against their family members at every turn when they were young, but when they are old, they want to turn around and ask for love and affection from their family members. Depression, dementia and other mental illnesses lead to an increase in the crimes of the elderly . Therefore, at this time, it is necessary for the government to work together across ministries to show the power of caring and justice! Tai, Shih-Mei emphasized that the judicial system should at least provide professional counseling through prison social workers and psychologists when the elderly are serving their sentence for the first time, and then combine the resources of civil organizations such as the Rehabilitation Association to exert the power of caring and justice. Reduce the occurrence of repeated crimes by the elderly. However, it is a pity that although all prisons currently employ dedicated social workers, under the long-term relatively conservative and closed environment of the prison system, in most cases, social workers even have to meet and interview individual prisoners. After layers of administrative applications and reviews, not to mention extending the tentacles beyond the prison walls, the elderly prisoners are well prepared in advance for life after release from prison, so as to reduce their chances of being imprisoned again. The increase in crime among the elderly caused by mental illnesses such as depression and dementia is another issue that all aging societies must face. Li Junhong said that dementia is a morbid brain function degeneration process that is highly related to aging. In the early stage of the disease, the patient's ability to remember, think, and understand may be affected, and then there may be poor emotional control, lack of flexibility in dealing with things, and frequent conflicts with others; The well-recognized "good man" has become a "violent old man", and even has serious persecution paranoia.Under the influence of dementia, the chances of the elderly becoming victims and perpetrators of crimes will increase significantly. For example, they may be more likely to be deceived; they may also be more likely to have physical conflicts with people of varying severity due to minor incidents, which may lead to injuries or even homicides; they may also buy things but forget to pay for them, or even forget that they bought them In the end, he became an "old" thief who repeated his old tricks in the eyes of merchants. The victim cannot be exonerated if he is not prosecuted. Theft is not a crime in the Criminal Law. At this time, some people may ask, if the family members can prove that the criminal behavior of the elderly is caused by dementia, and the criminals involved are some low-level criminals. Is it possible to avoid criminal punishment when committing the crime of theft of valuable commodities? LIN,MING-LUN, a lawyer at Xieheng International Law Firm, said that theft is a crime in the "Criminal Law", even if the value of the goods stolen by the party is limited, unless the family members can obtain an understanding before the store calls the police, otherwise, it will be regarded as the victim after the incident. If you are willing not to pursue the case, or if the perpetrator is an old man with dementia, the whole case must still be transferred to the prosecution for investigation. Of course, the law still has room to reduce the punishment or even not prosecute criminal acts that are obviously affected by the disease and lack the ability to judge, especially for senior citizens over the age of 80; however, this depends on different cases and different prosecutors. It depends on the free opinion and judgment of judges and judges. In other words, on the premise that the family members of the elderly with dementia can submit their medical treatment and diagnosis certificates, although they have the opportunity to be exempted from criminal responsibility, they do not necessarily have such "good luck" every time, so they should not take chances . Former prosecutor WU,HSIN-YING of the New Taipei City and Penghu District Prosecutors Office once shared a case she handled. A grandfather in his 90s was transferred because he went to the store to steal items from the store in just a few months, but she found out that Grandfather has no criminal record in the past. When he was young, he had a normal job. After retirement, he has his family to take care of him. Obviously, he has no motive for theft. Whether the elderly accidentally touch the French Open can be a comedy or not, often depends on the function of the familyLater, WU,HSIN-YING inspected the video disc of the transcript made by the police during the interrogation of the parties. It was found that the logic of the grandfather's oral expression was loose, and he sometimes admitted and sometimes denied the theft. Therefore, WU,HSIN-YING, as a prosecutor, made three agreements with the family members, requiring the family members to take her grandfather to a big hospital for medical treatment immediately, and assist the old man to obtain the victim's forgiveness; and if the old man is indeed diagnosed with dementia by the doctor, the family members must also submit the old man's treatment plan , to show the sincerity of the family's willingness to do their best to prevent Grandpa from repeating the same mistakes. Fortunately, Grandfather's family functioned well, and his children and grandchildren were willing to actively assist in dealing with Grandpa's problems, and they were able to fulfill all the requests made by the prosecutor. WU,HSIN-YING believes that if the judiciary still insists on forcibly intervening at this time, such as suspending the prosecution or even arresting the grandfather, it is a meaningless waste of social resources. Grandpa will not sue for punishment. However, not every elderly crime case can have such a happy ending. This often depends on the family functions of the elderly, and even if the parties lack a sound family support network, whether the social welfare mechanism can play a timely role in replacing the elderly who may fall into the abyss of repeated crimes. Three years from now, Taiwan will enter a "super-aged society" where one out of every five people is over 65 years old. However, the government's mentality and policy preparations are still quite limited. "Many seemingly small things are actually important things." Li Junhong said, for example, if the public transportation systems in counties and cities can be friendlier and more convenient, it may be possible to reduce the chances of the elderly drinking and driving; Enlarging the font of product labels and strengthening warm reminders through various methods may reduce the number of elderly people who forget to pay for purchases and are mistaken for theft; Yu Changzhao just maintains the pipeline, and many elderly people may not commit crimes because of doing nothing all day long. Every ministry should try to see society from the standpoint and perspective of the elderlyUnder the attack of severe birthrate reduction, Taiwan's population will continue to age for at least one generation in the future, which will be an unchangeable reality. But as long as the government comes down from the Executive Yuan, each ministry can try to understand the various measures and obstacles that are not conducive to the elderly in Taiwanese society from the standpoint and perspective of the elderly, and then seek improvement through the penetration and formulation of public policies. Crime has the opportunity to be better controlled. I hope that we will not wait until the day when Taiwan has to discuss whether to set up special prisons for elderly prisoners, and then everyone regrets that we can actually do more.
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