NCJ Number
131734
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (September 1991) Pages: 50-75
Date Published
1991
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Survey questionnaire responses from over 1,100 Japanese high school students in Osaka were used to examine the relationships between juvenile delinquency, informal crime control, social control, and differential association theories. The specific hypotheses tested were that delinquency is directly related to the access of motivated offenders to crime targets, indirectly related to the identifiability of motivated offenders by capable guardians, indirectly related to the guardians' ability to effect target control, and indirectly related to the strength of social bonds between motivated offenders and their anticriminal intimate handlers.
Abstract
In this study, access was defined as motorcycle use and residence urbanity; identifiability defined as changing school uniforms after leaving school; target control variables were related to the juvenile knowing his neighbors and having adult work friends; and indicators of social bonds were attachment, commitment, involvement, beliefs, and negative bonds. The findings indicated that the rate of juvenile delinquency is much lower in Japan than in the U.S. because the web of informal social control is drawn more closely over juveniles in Japan. Two additional societal factors are noted as contributing to the low Japanese crime rate: the structured transition from childhood to adulthood and the lack of visible ethnic underclass groups. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 27 references (Author abstract modified)