Crime 15-year-old stabs woman to enter reformatory

Utterly unbelievable: a 15-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing an 84-year-old woman in Chiba City on Sunday told police that he deliberately targeted someone weaker than himself to be sent to a juvenile detention centre. The boy explained to investigators that he had been struggling with a complex family environment and growing dissatisfaction. Police also revealed that he had experienced trouble with classmates at school, had a record of delinquent behaviour, and had previously run away from home.

He reportedly told police that he had wanted to kill someone, regardless of who, so he could escape his home situation. He said he spotted the victim, Takahashi, walking along the street at around 5:10 p.m. on Sunday and decided to follow her. A passerby called emergency services after finding an elderly woman lying on her side in the street in Chiba's Wakaba Ward, unconscious and bleeding from a wound in her back and the side of her head.


On a related note:

Children in Japan continue to suffer poor mental health, with the country ranking 32nd among 43 developed and emerging nations due to high suicide rates and other factors, a UNICEF report released Wednesday showed. The country improved from 37th in 2020 when the ranking was last published, although this time the suicide rate among Japanese youth was the fourth highest among wealthy states surveyed, worsening from 12th.

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How absolutely horrible must your life be to consider and actually commit to killing another human being in order to escape? This is some ex-cons-who-don't-know-how-to-live-outside-prison level desperation. And a child at that? I've been in some dire straits but I can't even imagine the level of desperation that would require.

The kids aren't all alright... Maybe the publicity stunts boasting about how comfortable and well-fed prisoners are wasn't such a great idea after all?

I think this video was posted in another thread but I couldn't find which one with a quick search. The link starts halfway through the video where they start talking about the keimusho bunkasai, the first half is about a French man who was accused of embezzlement and held in detention, and the conditions he faced as an accusee in custody, providing quite a juxtaposition.

dracuella said:

How absolutely horrible must your life be to consider and actually commit to killing another human being in order to escape? This is some ex-cons-who-don't-know-how-to-live-outside-prison level desperation. And a child at that? I've been in some dire straits but I can't even imagine the level of desperation that would require.

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I personally have never had thoughts to actually kill someone, but I can see where he's coming from, wanting to get away from home (of course, killing someone is NEVER the answer) but having a bad relationship with everyone in the family is something that him and I have in common, and wanting to get away from them. Part of the reason I want to live in Japan is simply to get away from them. That said, his mental health should definitely be looked into, as well as a thorough background check to see what might've been done to him by the family.

There's no excuse. He could have made it into prison via a property crime. Definitely something wrong with him regardless of family life.