The purpose of this study of public cooperation with the police in Japan is twofold: First, it draws on the legitimacy model to investigate the causal relationship between trust in and cooperation with the police in Japan, and explores how well the model fits the sample data. Second, it seeks to identify the determinant factors of public cooperation with the police in Japan. The key finding of the first analysis is that the legitimacy model does not seem to be sufficiently applicable to the Japanese data. The effects of the two key elements of police legitimacy-perceived duty toward and moral alignment with the police-on cooperation with the police were not significant. The findings of the second analysis show, rather, that gender, age, education, marital status, years of residence, and perceived sanctions are determinants of cooperation with the police. Among the findings, marital status and years of residence are worth our attention, given the results of the gender-specific analyses. Possible reasons for these results are discussed in consideration of various aspects of Japanese society, such as traditional gender role expectations.
Despite its post-war reputation as one of the most crime-free industrialized countries Japan has a rapidly increasing recorded crime rate and corresponding falling clearance rate in police statistics. In 1998, only 19 per cent of the Japanese public thought crime was getting worse, but by 2005 this had increased to 48 per cent. The first part of this article, therefore, examines statistical records to assess the public's perception of increasing crime. Recent evidence (Hamai and Ellis, 2006), summarised here, shows that in the late 1990s, press coverage of police scandals provoked key policing policy changes. These changes resulted in a sudden drastic increase in recorded crime, due to the increase in hitherto unreported and less serious forms of crime, and a coincident dramatic decrease in clearance rates. The second part of the article then examines, in more depth, how the myth of the collapse of secure society was created and has been maintained. The main focus is on the inaccurate media coverage of crime and the growing influence of the victims' movement. The article then considers the impact of increasing punitivism along with an analysis of changes in the prison population.
This entry first presents a critical summary of historical trends in crime and the current crime picture in Japan, then outlines the key elements of the criminal justice process one by one, in order of their occurrence: policing and prosecutions; courts; and punishment. Evidence on Japan's continued use of the death penalty, life sentences, and recidivism is also considered. The entry concludes with an overview of youth/juvenile justice in Japan.
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