Crime Is Still Paying

The good news is that crime is going down. No, really. It’s been going down for the last 20 years. The arrest rate has gone down a third in that time.

As you would expect, most crimes are committed by younger, more agile folks. People who can jump over fences after a burglary, or outrun police after robbing someone at an ATM. But here’s the kicker. Crime among young people is decreasing at the same time that baby boomer crime is INCREASING. For adults aged 55 and older, there has been a twenty per cent increase. One way to read that statistic is that these boomers engaged in criminal activity when they were younger, and they are still at it. What the hell? Once a crook, always a crook, as someone close to me pointed out. She also mentioned a former President.

Other than fomenting insurrection, what sort of crimes are boomers committing? Like many other age groups, the crimes fall into the 4 major categories: murder/non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault.

If this is starting to worry you as much as it does me, we’re not alone. Think about the Gen Z kid who’s worried that Grandpa is cooking up a jewel heist or murdering his former business partner who ratted him out to the Feds for money laundering.

We are supposed to be retiring, moving to the Sunbelt and playing shuffleboard, not murdering anyone. What happened to the Summer of Love? That was 1967 in San Francisco. Timothy Leary told the hippie crowd to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” And many did just that. Unfortunately, many others followed the path of crime and now it’s clear that they are still on that path. Politicians alone must be responsible for a large chunk of boomer crime. Insider trading, misuse of government funds, misuse of campaign funds, bribery, perjury, tax evasion – the possibilities are endless.

If you are reading this and have committed a crime lately, my plea to you is “knock it off.” You’re making boomers look bad and we’ve done a fine job doing that without you adding to our bad reputation.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.