Older Offenders-Riskier Than You Think

Highlights

There were 546,000 older offenders arrested for criminal activity in 2019 per the FBI.

High percentages of older offenders are arrested after release from state prisons.

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There are advocates who insist that we release most or nearly all older offenders from prison. They believe they are harmless. Are they correct?

I did a ride-along with parole and probation agents years ago visiting those on supervision in their homes. We went to the house of a 62-year-old with a long criminal history. “Why are we going there,” I asked. “How dangerous can this person possibly be? They responded with the observation that there are a multitude of older offenders who simply won’t quit crime.

A basic premise of criminology is that older offenders age out of crime. The same thought applies to older offenders not returning to the justice system after release from prison. Advocates see older offenders as low-hanging fruit and suggest that we should release as many as possible from incarceration.

We debate an offender’s commitment to crime with the thought that programs, religion, age, or family ties lessen one’s involvement in criminal activities. When looking at a broad range of data, older offenders become less committed to criminal activity.

But what’s somewhat astounding are the numbers arrested for the 50 + age group or older individuals who are rearrested before and after state prison.

People Arrested By Age

The data below is from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, NIBRS. Looking at the 51+ age categories, we see that 546,000 older people were arrested. The same category was responsible for 203,000 violent crimes.

Yes, that pales in comparison to the 6,543,257 arrested for all categories and the 1,795,462 arrested for crimes against persons, yet the numbers for the 50+ category seem high if we buy the criminological premise that older people age out of crime.

Note that about 7,000 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies did not send crime data to the FBI’s new NIBRS program, thus the numbers presented are an undercount.

Recidivism-Arrests After Prison

The data below is from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. For the 55-64 category, 56 percent released from state prison were arrested after 10 years. For those in the 65+ category, 40 percent were rearrested after 10 years.

The US Sentencing Commission

Data from the US Sentencing Commission focuses on offenders in federal prison who are principally there for major drug and immigration offenses versus state correctional systems where most (58 percent) represent violent offenders. The Commission issued a report on older offenders observing that:

Older offenders had a much larger proportion of fraud offenses (17.8%) and sex offenses (7.3%), compared to offenders under the age of 50 (6.4% and 4.1%, respectively).

Older offenders were sentenced for violent offenses (8.0%) slightly less often than all other offenders (9.8%). Roughly 30 percent of both older offenders (27.7%) and all other offenders (31.2%) were sentenced for a drug trafficking offense.

Older offenders (5.3%) received an aggravating role adjustment (editor’s note-reason for an enhanced sentence) as frequently as offenders under age 50 (3.6%). This adjustment is based on the offender’s role in the offense as an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor.

Although they had less extensive criminal histories, nearly the same proportion of older offenders (2.2%) received career offender status as did offenders under the age of 50 (2.3%).

The recidivism rate of older offenders (21.3%) was less than half that of offenders under the age of 50 (53.4%).

Conclusions

The justice system is overwhelmed by criminal activity and increasing violence. We all understand that law enforcement and corrections have limited capacities. It makes sense to look at older offenders as to their “dangerousness” and suitability for alternatives to incarceration.

There are advocates who argue that older offenders age out of crime thus any effort to hold them in a correctional setting (or putting them on parole and probation) is simply a waste of time.

“There’s been a more recent shift, Maschi (Tina Maschi, a Fordham University professor and former prison social worker who studies aging prisoners) said in a phone interview, toward exposing problems in the criminal justice system and demanding reforms. When Maschi first began researching, she says, few people were talking about problems associated with keeping older adults locked up. But now, it’s caught on, Maschi said, thanks to a younger generation that “gets the agism part of it.” The public momentum, she said, highlights how the issue relates to the intersection of justice, aging, health, and social systems. “It affects everybody,” Maschi pointed out. “Both victims and offenders.”

I understand both sides of the equation. I suspect that many older individuals are in prison for repeat violent or property crimes. Keeping older inmates in prison (along with their health problems) comes with an enormous cost.

But the data is clear, there were 546,000 older offenders arrested for criminal activity in 2019 (the latest available data from the FBI-an admitted undercount).

High percentages of older “state” offenders are arrested after release from prison per the above document from the Bureau Of Justice Statistics.

The report from the US Sentencing Commission provides a different picture of federal recidivism. The recidivism rate of older offenders (21.3%) was less than half that of offenders under the age of 50 (53.4%). This is based on eight years of data compared to ten years for the Bureau of Justice Statistics document cited above on state offenders. Federal inmates serve 85 percent of their sentences. There is the possibility that older offenders serving 85 percent die in prison or are really aged upon release, thus skewing rates of recidivism.

The mandate is for those in the Commission’s study to be US citizens in a system where immigration offenses are one of two main categories (along with major drug offenses) which may also skew results. Their backgrounds are roughly the same as for younger inmates, and fraud was their primary crime which brings us to the paragraph below.

Combining the 61-65 and the 66+ age groups, it’s clear that older Americans have high numbers of criminal victimization (when compared to other age groups) for burglary, counterfeiting and forgery, destruction/damage/vandalism, embezzlement, fraud, larceny and theft, and motor vehicle theft per the FBI.

Note that this finding is from an early version of the FBI’s new National Incident-Based Reporting System. Fraud and the elderly is clearly an issue. If we accept that most crime (both victims and offenders) is within similar demographics, older offenders may be responsible for a high percentage of crimes against the elderly.

Within the justice system’s limitations, we must focus our attention and resources on those who are a danger to public safety. But at the same time, many older offenders are clearly committed to criminal activity and cannot be ignored.

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