Aging and Delinquent Behavior - The Criminal Act and the Societal Response (From Israel Studies in Criminology, V 7, P 37-53, 1984, S Gloria Shoham, ed. - See NCJ-104759)

• NCJ Number: 104762
• Author(s): G Fishman; I Sordo
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Sheridan House Inc
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Crime among elderly persons in Israel is not the continuation of a lifetime pattern; instead, it generally represents a response to the implications of growing old in contemporary society.

Abstract

The analysis considered a sample of 260 persons aged 55 or older, taken from a total 3,111 elderly persons suspected of breaking the law in 1976. The Israeli police had investigated all these individuals on suspicion of many types of law violations. The sample was random. All but 16 subjects were males, and 210 were Jews. Fifty-three percent had no prior conviction record, 18.5 percent had one conviction, and 20 percent had more than two prior convictions. Sixty-two percent committed the first offense at age 55 or over, with most committing the first offense before age 65. The subjects' distribution of urban and rural residences corresponded to that of the general population, and 77 percent of the subjects were married. Thus, loneliness and alienation due to urban living were not factors in their criminality. The subjects were involved in a wide variety of crimes against persons and property. Sentencing tended to be more punitive than for the general population, indicating society's disregard for the elderly population. Figures, tables, and 10 references.