Juvenile Justice in the U.S. and Japan: A Comparison
In the United States, the public and politicians alike perceive a significant and frightening increase in youth crime and violence; concerns about the capacity of the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate chronic and violent youthful offenders while simultaneously protecting public safety accompany the growing fear of youth crime (Feld, 1999). In Japan, where the juvenile justice system has been characterized as incorporating Franco-Germano-American ingredients (Kitamura, 1993), juvenile crime is substantially less than in the United States. The official murder rates per 100,000 population in Japan, and the official theft rates in that country are one-sixth and one-fourth those of the United States, respectively; similarly, juvenile crimes rates are less than 50 percent in most categories in Japan than those reported in the United States (Tanioka, 1991).
Given these differentials, the purpose of this report is to compare the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system in Japan and the United States. The report will offer a review of relevant literature as a foundation for qualitative analysis of the two juvenile justice systems under examination. A methods section, along with a description of the limits inherent in such a study, will be presented. Discussion, recommendations, and conclusions will be provided.
It will be argued herein that in Japan, juvenile delinquency rates are less than in the United States not because of any inherently superior or more efficient construction of the juvenile justice system, but because of the persistence and strength of a number of cultural variables that inhibit the onset of delinquent activities among Japanese youth (Tanioka, 1991). Specifically, it will be argued that the web of informal social control over juveniles is much closer in Japan than in the United States, thus reducing the potential for delinquent behavior.
Juven...