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It is widely accepted that Japanese, compared to Americans, commit fewer criminal and other forms of deviant acts. However, there is evidence that Japanese students have an unusually high prevalence of bullying. In the current study, we develop a rationale for predicting that Japanese students, relative to Americans, should be oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and have more favorable attitudes toward bullying, which, in turn, might explain why student bullying is more prevalent in Japan than in the U.S. Analyses of comparable survey data from college students in Japan (N = 584) and the U.S. (N = 623) provide generally supportive evidence for our predictions. In agreement with expectations, Japanese students committed more bullying acts during their high school days than Americans. Further, Japanese students were oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and had more favorable attitudes toward bullying. After controlling for both an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, the initially significant difference between the two samples in student bullying disappeared. We discuss the utility of comparative research to increase our understanding of cross-national differences in student bullying. We suggest that longitudinal comparative data on an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, both of which reflect individual cognitive orientations, are an important resource for further development of school intervention programs around the world.

Drawing on the cultural collectivism–individualism literature, we predict that Japanese students, compared to Americans, tend to commit fewer deviant acts because they are less inclined toward individualistic value orientations, risk seeking, negative emotionality, and subjective stress; because they are exposed to greater parental discipline and have stronger parental attachment; because they have weaker peer attachment and associate with peers who react less favorably to deviance; because they have stronger bonds to conventional society and greater social support from significant others; and because they are exposed to fewer deviance opportunities. Analyses of comparable data from college students in Japan (N = 469) and the United States (N = 594) provided mixed support for our predictions. As expected, Japanese students committed fewer deviant acts during their high school days. Furthermore, consistent with expectations, Japanese students had lower scores on all four individual factors, the two peer factors, and the environmental factor of deviance opportunities. After controlling for these seven factors, the effect of Japan versus the United States decreased by one third. The decrease was not greater at least partly because, in Japan, compared to the United States, risk seeking had significantly less influence on student deviance, and subjective stress had significantly more influence on student deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that Japanese, compared to Americans, commit fewer criminal and other forms of deviant acts. However, there is evidence that Japanese students have an unusually high prevalence of bullying. In the current study, we develop a rationale for predicting that Japanese students, relative to Americans, should be oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and have more favorable attitudes toward bullying, which, in turn, might explain why student bullying is more prevalent in Japan than in the U.S. Analyses of comparable survey data from college students in Japan (N = 584) and the U.S. (N = 623) provide generally supportive evidence for our predictions. In agreement with expectations, Japanese students committed more bullying acts during their high school days than Americans. Further, Japanese students were oriented more strongly toward an external locus of control and had more favorable attitudes toward bullying. After controlling for both an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, the initially significant difference between the two samples in student bullying disappeared. We discuss the utility of comparative research to increase our understanding of cross-national differences in student bullying. We suggest that longitudinal comparative data on an external locus of control and student attitudes toward bullying, both of which reflect individual cognitive orientations, are an important resource for further development of school intervention programs around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines the cross-cultural applicability of Akers' social learning theory in explaining why Japanese commit fewer deviant acts than Americans. It is predicted that deviance would be less common in Japan because Japanese have less favorable attitudes toward deviance, which in turn are attributable to less favorable peer reactions to deviance. Analyses of comparable survey data from college students in Japan (N = 583) and the United States (N = 615) provide mixed support for our arguments. As expected, Japanese students had less favorable attitudes toward deviance because they had peers who reacted less favorably to deviance. Contrary to expectation, however, even after controlling for student attitudes toward deviance and peer reactions to deviance, the initially large difference between the two samples in student deviance remained significant. This was at least partly because, in Japan, compared with the United States, peer reactions and student attitudes had significantly less influence on student deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longitudinal research on the development of criminal careers has rarely been carried out in Japan. This article reviews the advantages and problems of longitudinal research, major international longitudinal surveys, and key conclusions about criminal careers. It then discusses results obtained in a study of the recidivism of over 700 male Japanese sex offenders against young children. It was estimated that 24 % of these men would be rearrested for sex offenses within 5 years after release. Older offenders and those on parole were less likely to offend. The article then discusses the criminal careers of two large samples totalling 1,700,000 Japanese offenders. The crime rate (the age-crime curve) was consistently higher for the 1935 birth cohort than for the 1950 birth cohort. The article concludes by reviewing new longitudinal research that is tracking the criminal careers of ex-inmates of Japanese training schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]