It is both banal and horrific that individuals are being recruited for crime through social media. Key to the success of this new form of criminality is the anonymity provided by those communications media. While this looks like a law enforcement problem, it is in fact much more.
Addressing it properly demands a wide-ranging, multipronged approach that includes the police, but also the regulation of social media sites, improving digital literacy as well as creating the economic opportunities so that young people are not fooled or forced into these jobs.
The problem of tokuryū, or anonymous crime groups, was thrust back into headlines last week, after the robbery and murder of an elderly woman, Eiko Tomiyama, in Tochigi Prefecture, and the injury to her two sons. Police believe that a couple recruited four 16-year-old boys to commit the crime. It is suspected that the two were relatively low-level members of a larger group and were themselves acting under orders.
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