Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The Impossible Case of Japan

The Impossible Case of Japan AbstractIf increasing crime seems to be an unavoidable concomitant of rapid urbanisation,Japan might be an interesting exception. Both statistics and research tell usthat Japan is a modern, rapidly urbanised society with little crime. Thisarticle raises the question if, and eventually in which way, one may talk aboutJapan as a low crime nation. Is there anything of criminological interest tolearn from Japan? After describing the Japanese society along five analyticaldimensions the answer to this question is that while in the West we can talkabout “community lost”, in Japan we should rather talkabout “individual lost”. At the individual level theobliteration of the self is the price to be paid for less crime. However, at thecollective level Japan might teach the West a lesson. If crime is regarded asactions committed by outsiders, then Japanese society has succeeded in linkingthe individual to a group context which most likely functions in a crimepreventive way. Instead of endless crime preventive programs of“social engineering”, the West should pay more attentionto basic sociological insights concerning collective obligations and identities.In this regard we might look to Japan. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology SAGE

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/the-impossible-case-of-japan-QeCuWTE9r2

References (100)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © by SAGE Publications
ISSN
0004-8658
eISSN
1837-9273
DOI
10.1375/acri.35.2.203
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractIf increasing crime seems to be an unavoidable concomitant of rapid urbanisation,Japan might be an interesting exception. Both statistics and research tell usthat Japan is a modern, rapidly urbanised society with little crime. Thisarticle raises the question if, and eventually in which way, one may talk aboutJapan as a low crime nation. Is there anything of criminological interest tolearn from Japan? After describing the Japanese society along five analyticaldimensions the answer to this question is that while in the West we can talkabout “community lost”, in Japan we should rather talkabout “individual lost”. At the individual level theobliteration of the self is the price to be paid for less crime. However, at thecollective level Japan might teach the West a lesson. If crime is regarded asactions committed by outsiders, then Japanese society has succeeded in linkingthe individual to a group context which most likely functions in a crimepreventive way. Instead of endless crime preventive programs of“social engineering”, the West should pay more attentionto basic sociological insights concerning collective obligations and identities.In this regard we might look to Japan.

Journal

Australian & New Zealand Journal of CriminologySAGE

Published: Aug 1, 2002

There are no references for this article.