Hunting, poaching, and the age factor

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2000:

Legal hunters claim that their
behavior markedly differs from that of socalled
“slob hunters” and poachers––but
checking the ages of 211 people charged or
convicted in hunting-related criminal cases
reported by mass media during 1999 and the
first eight months of 2000, ANIMAL PEOPLE
found that illegal hunters show almost
the same age-related behavioral patterns
found by Robert Jackson and Robert Norton
of the University of Wisconsin in their 1977
interviews with more than 1,600 hunters
who were not charged with any offense.

Among 45 hunters charged with
wanton massacres of wildlife, constituting
21% of the sample, ANIMAL PEOPLE
discovered an average age of 27 years, six
months, with the median at just 21 years,
six months. Only seven exceeded age 40.
Among 68 hunters charged with
various forms of unsporting conduct in the
effort to “get their deer” or other quarry,
constituting 32% of the sample, the average
age was 36 years, three months, with the
median at 38. Only two exceeded age 60.
Among 60 hunters charged with
offenses related to trophy hunting, constituting
28% of the sample, the average and
median ages were both 44. Only 10 alleged
offenders were under 30. Six were 70-plus.
Among 38 hunters charged with
other offenses involving unusual weapons or
skill, constituting 18% of the sample, the
average and median ages were slightly
younger, at 41.5 years and 43 years, but
none were younger than 25; just five were
under 30; and only four were older than 55