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Study of Older Offenders

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Crime statistics and victimization reports show that the majority of crime is committed by the younger generation (Rothman, Dunlop, Burton D & Entzel, 2004), with the peak ages for crime sentencing being 21-27 (Blowers & Doerner, 2015). Older people classified from ages 50 onwards are reported to have committed the least amount of crimes compared to all other age categories, accounting for less than 5% of crimes committed (Criminal justice statistics, 2015). While statistic wise older people fill a very small proportion of committed crimes, there is in fact significant importance in studying older offenders. In this day and age it is mandatory in the majority of countries that older prisoners are provided the same medical care as free world citizens. This ranges from everyday healthcare needs to the treatment of complex medical conditions and illnesses (Smyer & Burbank, 2009). The costs involved to care for an older offender can be up to three times more than that of a younger, which is a worrying factor when the population is constantly on the increase (Smyer & Burbank, 2009). As accommodating for older offenders is not cheap, if there were a way through research and theoretical developments to gain an understanding into the reasoning behind why older people do in fact commit crime, it could potentially reduce further increases to the criminal population. This report will predominantly discuss this. It will discuss that, the importance in gaining research insights into older offenders is, to be able to gain an understanding behind the reasoning as to why crimes by older people are committed, and by understanding the reasoning behind it, there are potentially ways to reduce crime rate by older offenders in the future.

Research gathered from 1980-2004 by Felmeyer and Steffensmeier (Felmeyer & Steffensmeier, 2007), identifies a stable pattern in the trends of

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