Asian Journal of Criminology

, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp 295–308 | Cite as

Social Capital, Rehabilitation, Tradition: Support for Restorative Justice in Japan and Australia

  • Hsiao-fen Huang
  • Valerie Braithwaite
  • Hiroshi Tsutomi
  • Yoko Hosoi
  • John Braithwaite
Article
First Online:
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Accepted:

Abstract

This paper investigates the attitudes and beliefs that the public hold about criminal behaviour in Japanese and Australian society, with a view to uncovering sources of resistance to, and support for, restorative justice. The study draws on a survey of 1,544 respondents from Japan and 1,967 respondents from Australia. In both societies, restorative justice met with greater acceptance among those who were (1) strong in social capital, (2) believed in offender reintegration and rehabilitation, (3) saw benefits for victims in forgiveness, and (4) were advocates for victims’ voices being heard and amends made. The alternative ‘just deserts’ and deterrence models for dealing with crime were grounded in attitudes of punitiveness and fear of moral decay, and reservations about the value of reintegrating and rehabilitating offenders. Like restorative justice supporters, ‘just deserts’ and deterrence supporters expressed concern that victims’ voices be heard and amends made. Winning public support for competing institutional arrangements may depend on who does best in meeting expectations for meeting the needs of victims.

Keywords

Restorative justice Social capital Confucian values Rehabilitation Victimology 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank other colleagues from a Japanese–Australian consortium that collected these data: Peter Grabosky, Shiro Kashimura, Malcolm Mearns, Haruo Nishimura, Monika Reinhart, Heather Strang, and Bunri Tatsuno. Our thanks to the Japanese Department of Education for funding. Our special thanks to Yoko Hosoi for her leadership in putting the consortium together in the funding application and to Hiroshi Tsutomi for his leadership in preparing the data for analysis.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Hsiao-fen Huang
    • 1
  • Valerie Braithwaite
    • 1
  • Hiroshi Tsutomi
    • 2
  • Yoko Hosoi
    • 3
  • John Braithwaite
    • 1
  1. 1.School of Regulation, Justice and Diplomacy, College of Asia and the PacificAustralian National UniversityCanberraAustralia
  2. 2.Faculty of International RelationsUniversity of ShizuokaShizuokaJapan
  3. 3.Faculty of SociologyToyo UniversityTokyoJapan

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