Dementia, poverty or a cry for attention? Shoplifting cases among Hong Kong’s elderly on the rise
Study finds shoplifting by the elderly three times more likely to happen in 2016 than in 2001, with social welfare experts attributing results to poverty, loneliness and illnesses such as dementia
The number of cases of elderly Hong Kong residents caught shoplifting has soared by more than 270 per cent over the past 16 years, a study by the Post has found.
The rate has also overtaken the city’s ageing trend, with the number of Hongkongers aged 61 or above increasing by only 62.4 per cent in the same period.
Social welfare experts, who attributed the results to poverty, loneliness and illnesses such as dementia, said the finding highlighted that the well-being of the city’s elderly deserved greater attention from the government and society.
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Frontline social workers providing rehabilitation services also noted a majority of elderly people arrested for petty crimes showed signs of early dementia.
Police reports over the past 16 years showed that despite a drop in the number of shoplifting cases – from 7,201 to 6,971 – annual arrests of people aged 61 or above in such crimes surged by 270.8 per cent, from 445 in 2001 to 1,650 in 2016.
The proportion of seniors involved in the total number of shoplifting cases also rose strikingly from 6.18 per cent in 2001 to 23.7 per cent two years ago.