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Changing Labor Markets and Criminal Behavior in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robert Evans JR
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Extract

In recent years the glitter of modern economic growth has been dulled, as more attention has been focused upon the attendant dislocations and negative aspects that have accompanied it. One area that has received little attention, especially from economists, is crime. Many writings of criminologists suggest that crime is a negative attribute that accompanies economic growth, for levels of affluence and crime seem to move upward together. A pattern similar to that observed in other modern countries was reported for Japan in 1966 by Professors DeVos and Mizushima.

What relationship should be expected between growth and crime? The usual economic theories of criminal behavior, with crime a declining function of an individual's ability to obtain legal income, would seem to argue for a negative relationship. However, crime is also related to the potential for ill-gotten gains; thus, it might be expected to at least keep pace with levels of income, or perhaps surpass them. This paper represents an attempt to provide some answers to these issues by explaining some of the complex interplay between factors involved in labor market improvement and the degree of criminal activity in Japan.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , May 1977 , pp. 477 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1977

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References

1 Wolf, Preben, “Crime and Development: An International Comparison of Crime Rates,” Scandinavian Studies in Criminology, 3 (1971), pp. 107–20.Google Scholar

2 De Vos, George A. et al., Socialization for Achievement (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1973), p. 367.Google Scholar

3 1972 Hanzai Hakusho (White paper on crime), Ministry of Justice, 1973, pp. 94–95.

4 General issues concerning these data are discussed in my Developing Policies for Public Security and Criminal justice (Ottawa: Economic Council of Canada, Special Study 23, 1973), pp. 24–41, 107–13. Some brief comments on Japanese data may be found in De Vos, pp. 329–31.Google Scholar

5 Success includes those given an early discharge and those who showed better adjustment to social life. Failure includes those recommitted for technical violations and reconviction, and those listed as unsatisfactorily adjusted. The remainder were listed as moderate, and included those whose behavior was acceptable but short of the standard of normal behavior. Non-Institutional Treatment of Of fenders in Japan (Tokyo: Rehabilitation Bureau, Ministry of Justice, 1970), pp. 48–51.Google Scholar

6 Berween 1961 and 1969, 663 inmates were released from Ohi; only 74 (11.2%) have committed crimes again.

7 This decline also confounds the alienation hypothesis that has been advanced in regard to juvenile delinquency (De Vos, p. 368).

8 Japanese Economic Growth (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

9 Gatrell, V. A. C. and Hadden, T. B., “Criminal Statistics and Their Interpretation” in Wrigley, E. A. (ed.), Nineteenth-Century Society (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1972), p. 316Google Scholar; and McClintack, Frederick H. et al., Crime in England and Wales (London: Heineman, 1968), pp. 9–34.Google Scholar

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11 Ogburn, William F. and Thomas, Dorothy S., “The Influence of the Business Cycle on Certain Social Conditions,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, XXVIII (1922), pp. 305–40.Google Scholar

12 Fleisher, Belton M., The Economics ofDelinquency (Chicago: Quadrangle Press, 1966)Google Scholar; and Phillips, Llad et al., “Crime, Youth, and the Labor Market,” Journal of Political Economy, LXXX (1972), pp. 491–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Ferdnand, Theodore N., “Criminal Pattern of Boston,” American Journal of Sociology, LXXIII (1967), pp. 84–99.Google Scholar