Search

Police institutions tend to be among the most secretive and least accountable of all organizations. When pressed for accountability or sued over malfeasance, they are notorious for skilful evasiveness. To admit error is akin to public humiliation. Police institutions disdain criticism of any kind, especially when the criticism is brought by women. In order to protect itself, police forces will use any step outside the law and use any means available to cage the voices of criticism. This paper will examine the arrest and prosecution of women who sue the police. It will use three major cases--two in Japan and one in the USA--of women being charged with murder after filing suits against the police in open courts. This paper will make the disturbing conclusion that women who sue the police, both in the USA and most certainly in Japan, put themselves in danger of vengeful arrest. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, we have an exciting and timely moment to examine and consider the role and impact of civic participation as decision makers in legal system. Many countries in the world are currently considering a possible introduction of popular participatory systems in making legal decisions, such as juries, mixed tribunals, and/or lay assessor's courts. In Japan, for example, there is an important introduction of the Saiban-in seido in 2009, and South Korea's experiment with a jury trial also begins from 2007. Legal reformers in Taiwan and Thailand are also exploring the possibility of introducing citizen juries. This paper then specifically focuses on cross-national analyses of the civic legal participation in Japan and the U.S. In order to examine whether popular civic participation is effective to democratize the criminal process and to build broader public confidence in the system of justice, individuals who have participated in a civic legal decision making process were contacted and interviewed in both Japan and the U.S. Japan has the law of the inquest of prosecution to publicly examine prosecutorial charging decisions, and it is periodically done by the prosecutorial review commission (PRC) composed of a group of randomly chosen citizens from the local community. Its purpose is similar to that of America's civil grand jury, which has the authority to examine and inspect the proper functioning of local public offices including DA's office. While PRC decisions historically had no legally binding authority, the 2002 legal reform gave the PRC the legally binding power to initiate changes in prosecutorial decision-making. Similar to the experience of serving in civil grand juries, it has been reported that the civic legal participation in the review board has also led to an increasing awareness of the importance of their participation and the confidence in the system of government. Our paper presents a number of important findings from the cross-national data collected in Japan and the U.S. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the interplay among economic imperatives within the entertainment business, the mafia's role in the creation of its own media image, and the production of gangster films. Taking Japan as a case study, the paper shows that, when given the chance to influence the content of gangster movies, crime bosses have portrayed themselves as benevolent patriarchs and a positive force in society, rather the anti-heroes of classic American gangster movies. In Japan, such a choice had, however, the unintended consequence of a decline in audiences' interest and eventually to the demise of studio yakuza movies. Ultimately, the paper shows that that mafia control over art can lead to the death of art-something that is bad for the mafia as well. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on capital punishment in China over the last 30 years. The paper first describes recent trends in offenses punishable by death, execution number, and execution method. Second, the paper attempts to analyze the causes of China's death penalty policy, in part by comparing it with death penalty policy and practice in Japan and the United States. Third, this paper explores China's recent efforts to reform capital punishment in the face of criticism from within the country and from abroad. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a historical review of the Japanese Yakuza, dating from the close of World War II to the present. By presenting an evaluation of media coverage, changes in law enforcement and documenting subtle changes in public reaction to Yakuza-related violence throughout Japan, this paper will show the evolution of the Yakuzas public image through time. The Yakuzas presence in Japanese society has proved to be quite malleable, ranging from running intimidation rackets to financial blackmail in recent years. As such, this paper will document the Yakuzas evolution from a romanticized yet amorphous form of informal justice following World War II into a targeted focus of police enforcement and public disdain. Documentation will rely on newspaper articles and editorials, police white papers, and media representations of the Yakuza as seen through the jitsuryoku-eiga (true document films) and ninkyo-eiga (chivalry films), two film genres dedicated to portraying the Yakuza on the big screen. Specific attention will be paid to the implication of these changes in regards to the modern-day Yakuza and a view to potential internationalization of the Japanese organized crime problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese corporations have consulted each other to acquire high profits. Such consultation is prohibited by laws such as the Penal Code and the Anti-Trust Law. Recently, the law enforcement agencies have strengthened the regulation of such illegal consultation. However, at the beginning of 2008 the mass media reported that all main paper-manufacturing companies produced recycled papers which do not contain enough used papers. At the presentation I will analyse this case. Then, I will consider how much Japanese compnanies are unwilling to stop illegal consultation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Garden of Grand Vision was a jerrybuilt building in the Chinese slums in Harbin, Manchuria. It housed a warren of flophouses and makeshift businesses for the dispossessed during the Japanese occupation of Manchukuo in the years leading to the Second World War in the Pacific. In 1942 a 300 page police survey was filed with the Japanese military intelligence services describing the residents, their origins and occupations. Of the 2,000 or so living in the Garden flophouses, nearly half were women, all of whom worked as prostitutes. These women were victims, yet their services provided more than sex for the floating population of the slum. The Japanese police officer who wrote the report claimed that these women acted as a safety valve in the desperate atmosphere of the Garden. They became a surrogate family to the dispossessed. Many of the women entered the sex trade to support drug addiction. Others became prostitutes because their earnings served as interest on loans taken out by their families. This paper will describe the lives of these women, their strategies for survival and the larger conditions of migrtation, invasion and war that led them into prostitution in the Garden of Grand vision. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to tear off the secret veil of the Japan cultural pattern of reintegrating criminals. In Japan, ordinary people must not associate with criminals -- it is a taboo. As a result, criminals have few choices after they are released. They can contact only members of their own family, their "Hogoji" (who is charged by the government with helping offenders to adapt after reentry), and Yakuza (members of Japanese criminal organizations). Hogojis give ex-offenders jobs and help take care of the whole family of released persons. Ex-offenders can hardly refuse this pattern because of their almost perfect exclusion by ordinary people. In other words, the Japanese way of reintegration depends not on bare power but on soft power. This soft power is not only cultural and religious but also social. The destruction of Japan's social base in recent times will ruin this Japanese tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the policy-making process for criminal punishment in contemporary Japan. It focuses especially on how the process has functioned during the period of Japan's recent "justice system reform movement" (shiho kaikaku undo), and it examines some of the most important punishment policy outputs in recent years. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years human traffickings have increasingly attracted worldwide attention. Today all over the world people perceive human traffickings as one of the most serious problems. Human traffickings become more and more dynamic and complex as time goes on. As a result it becomes more difficult to investigate the actual conditions and cope well with them. In this paper human trafficking networks around Japan and East Asia are examined from the perspective of chaos/commplexity criminology. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has enjoyed the reputation for being one of the most crime-free economically advanced countries. However, since the late 1990s, the Japanese public has lost confidence in its safety. A survey of public attitudes showed that the proportion of the public who thought crime was getting worse had increased from 18.8% in 1998 to 39.5% in 2004. I first examined the crime and other related statistics to investigate if the public view is based on sound evidence. According to the victimization surveys carried out, victimization rates dropped in most of the crimes. The vital statistics shows that the number of people killed with violence has also recently decreased. Regardless of the facts, people believe that the myth of safe society has already collapsed. In 2004, the Criminal Code in Japan was revised and adopted harsher punishment for violent crime in order to rebuild the safest country. During the sessions in the Parliament, several representatives questioned about evidence supporting the government claims on increasing violent crimes and the deterrent effects of the new Code. While there is no evidence provided except the governments belief, the new Criminal Code was adopted unanimously. The Minister of Justice mentioned I believe in punishment in a session. In accordance with the getting tough on crimes and criminals policy, prison population began to rise. In this paper, I will examine why and how the moral panic on crime is created in Japan by referring to press coverage of violent crimes and the victim support movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of modernization in a society is intimately connected to the growth of legal evolutions related to criminalization. While the progress of modernization expands the boundaries of tolerance, diversities, and open society, it also expands the boundaries of crime and criminalization. In the the West, the advance of modern law and justice and progress in human rights have expanded the boundaries of freedom. But they have also expanded the boundaries of criminalization and victimization. One of the major areas that have rapidly expanded with modernization, particularly in the societies of the West, is the criminalization of domestic violence. During the last thirty years, series of laws have evolved that have criminalized a wide variety of behaviors related to domestic violence. This paper will examine how and what laws and statutes related to the criminalization of domestic violence have evolved in the United States, and how some of those legal developments are now spreading in other societies of the world. Data will be drawn from Japan, China, and India. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to introduce how criminal cases in Korea and Japan have been disposed by the public prosecutor's office and court for the past 10 years. Content analysis will be used, mainly focusing on the White paper on crime (1995-2004) in Korea and Japan and several research articles related to this topic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offenses known to the police in Japanese urban areas were mapped using GIS and their geographic distributions were examined in terms of long-term trends by types of offense. The results will be discussed with special reference to their implications to crime prevention policies and practices ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, mixed court is going to be introduced in 2009. This study reports how Japanese citizens feel about participation in criminal trials by empirical survey in Japan. Some researches have already reported that almost Japanese is negative to take part in criminal trials. The most important point is that most Japanese are more afraid of expertise of law, than financial problems or disabilities that are popular reasons why US citizens cannot respond by jury summons. Therefore, at first, on the assumption of the analysis of unique nature about Japanese mixed trial, this report is focusing on the conscience of Japanese how they feel judge, lawyer, legal knowledge, and legal systems, and clarifies it by results researched through telephone survey at Tokyo. At conclusion, this report clarifies the difference between Japan and US, and proceeds to explain problems of lay participation in Japanese criminal trials. Especially, this report concludes most important problems for Japanese society and democracy in criminal justice are competence of citizens and some technical issues at court, and there are fewer problems at the first stage that citizens come to the court. That probably implies that Japanese mixed court will develop gradually, but all lawyer have to recognize by themselves their attitudes are the most important issues. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000 our Juvenile Law was revised toward partial criminalization. I will analyze the change in the practice for treatment of juvenile delinquents under this new revised law. At the time of enactment of the revised law the Diet members promised to review it five years later. Then, the national government made out a draft of another revision of the Juvenile Law in 2005. Although this draft did not pass, the government seems to present it again for the discussion at the Diet in 2006. I will point out that the rehabilitation model in our juvenile justice system may be undermined by the revisions of the Juvenile Law in Japan. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Japanese society has been facing an urgent need for preventing crimes against children. In Japan, most of the elementary-age children commute to school on foot and they are vulnerable to crime because of their immature sense of judgment and less power of resistance to the attack of offenders. However, several issues remain unsolved. First, spatial distribution of victimization and their home range still remain uncertain. Second, what are possible determinants of victimization and parents' fear of crime is not well understood. In 2006, we conducted a self-report victimization survey which asks elementary-age children (6-12 years old) about their experiences and locations of victimization, their routine home range, parents' fear and risk perception of crime, and social and psychological correlates of victimization. In the present study we report the results of analysis of the survey. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has enjoyed the reputation for being one of the most crime-free economically advanced countries. However, since the late 1990s, with a constantly increasing recorded crime rate and falling clearance rate in police statistics, it appears that the Japanese public has suddenly lost confidence in its safety and the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. In the general election in 2003, the crime problem became a crucial part of the political agenda. For the first time since WWII, major political parties proposed various measures to control crimes, such as: installing more CCTV; putting more police officers on the streets; and imposing longer sentences on offenders. The success of these measures is yet to be felt by the public. A 2004 survey of public attitudes showed that the proportion of the public who thought crime was getting worse was 40%, compared to only 19% in 1998. In another national survey, while 61% said that crime was getting worse in Japan, only 11% said it was in their community. Fear of crime has spread widely in the public. This coincided with the victim support movements in the criminal justice system. In the late 1990s, there was a specific series of victim-related police scandals in Japan that fundamentally changed the way the press reported policing issues. Such changes then provoked key policy changes toward the reporting and recording of crime, in a more victim-focused way, which in turn resulted in a sudden increase in the number of crimes recorded and a coincident decrease in the clearance rates. The resulting moral panic ("the myth of the collapse of a secure society") created by the press coverage of crime statistics then appears to have contributed to increasingly punitive public views about offenders and sentencing in Japan. The media is now far more interested in the victim's perspective and is far more likely to show people telling their heart-rending stories of victimization and grief. Victim advocates demand both care for crime victims and harsher punishments for offenders. At the end of 2004, the House of Councilors enacted two laws, at the same time, to enhance care for victims of crime and to toughen punishment for serious offenders. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Japanese society has been facing an urgent need for preventing crime committed against children. Although relatively little attention has been paid to children's crime victimization outside home or schools compared with much attention paid to domestic child abuse or school bullying, not a few of crimes targeting children take place on the way of children's trip to or from school, in park playgrounds, and on the premises of condominium buildings. In Japan, most of the elementary-age children trip to and from school on foot and they are intensely vulnerable to crime because of their immature sense of judgment and less power of resistance to the attack of offenders. In the present study we analyze violent crimes (approximately over 300) and sexual crimes (approximately over 900) committed against elementary-age children, which are selected from the penal code offenses reported to the police for the year 1996- 2002 in a large urban area of Japan. Since the dataset of penal code offenses includes the fields of both spatial information (Where the crime took place) and temporal information (when the crime took place), the present study aims to explore spatial and temporal aspects of crime against children using the GIS (Geographic Information System). The relationship between crime victimization and children's attributes as well as the types of high-risk places is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This presentation analyzes present situation of and recent measures against human trafficking in Japan from transnational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the inception of the DV Prevention Law, which was promulgated in April 2001 and enforced in October 2001, the number of petitions for issuance of a protection order and of cases in which perpetrators are punished for violation of a protection order has been rising. In response to such increases, the Japanese Justice Ministrys Research and Training Institute initiated a landmark study on DV batterers in 2002. Examining 346 case records obtained from the Japanese Prosecutors Office, we found three types of perpetrators for physical abuse: (1) the perpetrator with a history of substance abuse; (2) the perpetrator who had lived with the victim for a short period of time; and (3) the perpetrator who had lived with the victim for a short period of time and who had had difficulty in exchanging his/her thoughts with the victim. For psychological abuse, we found that the perpetrator had work-related problems (e.g., inability to find work or to retain a job for a long time). For rehabilitation, such perpetrators need substance abuse treatment, the improvement of communication skills, and job training and assistance in finding a job, particularly for those with previous criminal convictions. Research implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In designing the present Japanese constitution, the US occupation force broadened t the sphere of rights encompassing the individual citizen. A key beneficiary of these rights was to be the criminally accused. Those accused of capital crimes would be presumed innocent until proven guilty, forced confessions would not be admitted as evidence, and if found innocent, the defendant could not be put in double jeopardy - the prosecution forfeited the right to appeal decisions of "not guilty." Yet the rule of law has all but been ignored. Forced confessions are frequently admitted into evidence, and the prosecution can appeal decisions of innocence—an outright violation of the constitution. Needless to say, many western researchers continue to trumpet the virtues of justice in Japan. This presentation will examine the theory and facts of Japanese criminal justice, comparing the writings of western scholars and a recent wrongful conviction case which illustrates the gap between legal theory and courtroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We executed the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory to male deliquents in Japanese juvenile classification home and made a reoffending risk level table after follow-up study. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the necessity of community and urban planning aiming at preventing crimes against children is increasing rapidly in Japan. However, there is little empirical evidence that is used as the basis of concrete measures for child safety. This study aimed to identify actual conditions of living activities and crime victimizations of children through questionnaire survey that had been conducted in Kobe city, Hyogo prefecture in Japan. As a result of investigation for 2396 children and 1875 parents, the followings were indentified. a) Children were walking alone about a quarter of distances of children's whole walk actions, and they tended to walk in specific hours and areas. b) Crime victimizations of children were concentrated on the specific hours and areas. c) The hours and areas were not always covered by existing programs for child safety. These results suggested that it is necessary to consider characteristics of child activities in order to improve child safety effectively. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we study effectiveness of three training school programs, that is, the long-term, the general-short-term and the special short-term programs, relative to probation on recidivism for Japanese juvenile delinquents with differing criminal experiences. We employ logit/ individual lognormal split-population model to examine the relationship between the form of treatment (probation vs. the training school programs) and the time to as well as the probability of eventual reincarceration, while controlling differences in socio-demographic background, strength of ties to conventional society, offending history, and current delinquency type. We obtain and analyze the official crime data from the Ministry of Justice, Japan. The effects of treatment in the training school programs are mixed.We find that, in terms of the probability, those sent to training schools in the long-term and general short-term programs are less likely to be reincarcerated than delinquents placed on probation, but we do not find the same pattern in the special short-term program. However, none of the three programs are found to significantly affect the timing of reincarceration relative to probation. Implications of the result are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its post-war reputation as one of the most crime-free industrialized countries, it appears that the Japanese public has become more fearful about their public safety and their faith in the criminal justice system's effectiveness has declined. The 'myth of the collapse of secure society' and the resultant increase in popular punitivism in Japan can be seen by looking at the disparity between press coverage of murders; the lack of change in the actual murder rate; the increasingly powerful role of victim support lobby groups; and the sudden rise in the prison population. Even though homicide rate has constantly dropped since 1960's, more than 80 of people believe that crime situation is becoming worse. Punishments in laws and those sentenced in courts are becoming harsher. More offenders are sent to prison for life and sentenced to death. Braithwaite once claimed that Japan's success in maintaining a low crime rate could be explained by the commitment of the Japanese criminal justice system, and Japanese society in general, to notions of reintegration and reparation. However, the developments outlined above suggest that Japan has begun to resemble other developed countries, such as the US and UK, and is moving toward popular punitivism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-standing interest in comparative criminology has focused on Japan's low crime rates in the hopes of shedding light on the etiology of crime at the global level. Based on Marshall and Marshall's (1983) plea for purposeful site selection, the authors will compare Japan with rural Idaho in order test existing low crime theories, using a contextual, "most-dissimilar," type methodology.The authors will juxtapose the historical development and specific cultural values of Idaho, with historical and cultural elements identified as explanatory factors in the low crime literature on Japan. Based on the salient points identified as potential low crime predictors for each site, a matrix will be established in order to test for congruence. Additionally, crime patterns and trends will be examined, along with general economic and structural factors.The goal of the study is to answer a broader criminological methodology call for more contextual research. The authors will do so by establishing a complex descriptive comparison between Idaho and Japan in order to better the understanding of the low crime phenomenon at a micro- and macro-level. By contrast, it is hoped to also provide additional insight on high crime phenomena elsewhere. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is aimed at clarifying how the concept of the pre-delinquent juvenile has been socially constructed in Japan and how this construction has made an impact on the Japanese juvenile justice system. For this purpose, I employ both qualitative data (such as statutes, minutes, decisions, official documents and remarks) and quantitative data (such as statistics on child welfare, police activity, juvenile proceedings and correction). By analyzing this data, we can find that the institutions of the three branches of government and their individuals that use the legal term of "pre-delinquent juvenile" have interacted with each other and formed its meaning. The drafters of the new juvenile law of 1948 and the legislators tried to make the concept of the pre-delinquent juvenile narrow. However, since the 1970's, family court judges have transformed this concept into a much narrower form than the members of the Diet had intended. Such transformation has had a great impact on the functions of administrative agencies, such as police, child guidance offices, and juvenile training schools. Moreover, through these analyses, we can observe that the trends in the juvenile justice policies in the U.S. have influenced the social construction of "pre-delinquent juvenile" in Japan in waves. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They say that we are facing the crisis of existence caused by thedestruction of the environment: the impacts of global warming and soon. This presentation investigates the present situation ofenvironmental crimes, green crimes (i.e. crimes concerning airpollution, water pollution, deforestation, species decline and animalrights, and so on), in Japan and East-Asia, referring to some recentenvironmental problems. Then it traces recent developments of greencriminology and gives its prospects for future. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese Brazilian is posterity of the emigrants who have been from Japan to Brazil since 1908, and they have been considered that they are honest, law-abiding and hard workers, in Brazil. In recent years, since 1989, Japanese government and many Japanese companies have started to be immigrated them from Brazil to Japan as industrial workers. Actually, the most of the Japanese Brazilian are still honest, law-abiding and hard workers, but unfortunately, it has been getting easily for us to find them (both adult and juvenile) in prisons in Japan.Despite of their dependable nature, why did they have been pushed toward crime? What can Japanese society do for Japanese Brazilian to live together more comfortably? The purpose of my presentation is to introduce their life style and their difficulties, and try to find out the reasons of their crime and their solutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Japanese society has been facing an urgent need for preventing crimes against children. In Japan, most of the elementary-age children commute to school on foot and they are vulnerable to crime because of their immature sense of judgment and less power of resistance to the attack of offenders. However, several issues remain unsolved. First, spatial distribution of victimization and their home range still remain uncertain. Second, what are possible determinants of victimization and parents' fear of crime is not well understood. In 2006, we conducted a self-report victimization survey which asked elementary-age children (6-12 years old) about their experiences and locations of victimization, their routine home range, parents' fear and risk perception of crime, and social and psychological correlates of victimization. In the present study we report the results of analysis of the survey. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries including Japan seem to have experienced a move towards an exclusive society. Using a Japanese data, we conducted a partial test of Braithwaite's theory of reintegrative shaming theory to see what individual-level and macro-level (i.e, citiy-level) variables determine people's attitude towards offenders, that is, reintegrative and stigmatizind. The theory is basically supported because we find more interdepedent individuals in a more communitrian city are more reintegrative and less stigimatizing. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]