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Asian Criminology and Crime and Justice in Japan: An Introduction

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Crime and Justice in Contemporary Japan

Abstract

Japan is well known for an outstanding fact that its crime rates, particularly the violent crime rates, are the lowest among all industrialized countries. Theories of modernization and social change from Durkheim’s time have been repeatedly supported by the facts that almost all the countries experience a rapid rise in crimes along with the process of modernization, industrialization, and large-scaled population migration (e.g., Liu, Zhang, & Messner, 2001a, 2001b; Liu & Messner, 2001). Japan is an outstanding exception (see Tables 1.1 and 1.2). Criminologists naturally ask why, How do we explain this criminological mystery? Prominent Western scholars of comparative criminology explain the importance of understanding crime and justice in Asia. Karstedt (2001) has pointed out that the low crime rates in Asia are a major puzzle. She stated that scholars “look in awe to Asia, and try to solve the enigma of modern, affluent societies with low rates especially of violent crimes” (Karstedt, 2001, p. 285). These observations demonstrate the critical importance of developing criminology in Asia. In recent years, an increasing number of prominent scholars have recognized the importance and contributions of Asian criminology (Agnew, 2015; Belknap, 2015; Braithwaite, 2014, 2015; Carrington, Hogg, & Sozzo, 2015; Messner, 2014, 2015; Sampson, 2015; Thilagaraj & Liu, 2017; Walklate, 2015).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, China

    Jianhong Liu

  2. Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Setsuo Miyazawa

Authors
  1. Jianhong Liu
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  2. Setsuo Miyazawa
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Correspondence to Jianhong Liu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China

    Jianhong Liu

  2. Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA

    Setsuo Miyazawa

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Liu, J., Miyazawa, S. (2018). Asian Criminology and Crime and Justice in Japan: An Introduction. In: Liu, J., Miyazawa, S. (eds) Crime and Justice in Contemporary Japan. Springer Series on Asian Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69359-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69359-0_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69358-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69359-0

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