Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

1
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

• Japan Examples of Effectiveness
• and Borrowing
• Chapter Ten
• Reichel

2
Question

• Why is Japan an example
• of effectiveness and borrowing?

3
Effectiveness?

• FACTS
• Low crime rates (although increasing,
  approximately 2210/100,000 in 2001)
• Low imprisonment rate (approximately 49/100,000)
• Moderate clearance rate (crimes reported to
  police - approximately 43 in 2000)
• High conviction rate (99 of those coming before
  a judge) and high imprisonment rate (99 of those
  convicted).

• REASONS
• Liberal use of informal tactics by police, i.e.,
  apologies.
• Imprisonment is not considered a useful means for
  achieving the rehabilitative goal.
• A crime is cleared when the police tell the
  prosecutor the crime has been solved no arrest
  is necessary.
• Most cases are not contested due to confessions
  half the prison sentences are suspended.

4
Borrowing

• Eastern morals, Western Science
• Adaption versus Adoption
• Japanese Spirit
• How do these issues relate
• to the concept of borrowing?

5
Correlates of Japanese Cultural Patterns

• Explain each of the following correlates.
• How do they relate to each other in Japanese
  culture?
• Homogeneity
• Contextualism and Harmony
• Collectivism
• Hierarchies and Order

6
Japanese Law

• Since 1946, the Japanese legal system has been
  grounded in both civil and common legal
  traditions in the context of local custom
  informality.

7
Law by Bureaucratic Informalism

• Taking individuals as the principal social unit
  denies that society is composed of groups, each
  of which is greater than the sum of its members.
• Explain how collectivism and informality
• address this statement?
• How would this relate to bureaucratic
  informalism?

8
Policing

• Interdependent concepts
• that affect low crime rates include
• Deployment of police officers reliance on
  static deployment through fixed koban and
  chuzaisho posts.
• The citizen as partner the working partnership
  and interaction with citizens.
• Policing as service the police emphasis is on
  service, i.e., the bi-annual residential survey.

9
Judiciary

• Compromise, conciliation, and the importance of
  the apology
• Police officers apologies and confessions
• Lawyers prosecutors and suspended sentences
  defense attorneys and the accused
• Judges inquisitorial decide facts and
  determine the sentence (concurrent)
• Informal settings over courtroom activities no
  plea bargains
• Lawyer and judges choose career paths following
  the European model.

10
Major Issues

• What is the impact of the following concepts
• on the Japanese legal system?
• Right to Counsel in Japan
• Privacy
• Impartial Jury
• Confessions

11
Court Structure

• Supreme Court
• High Courts
• District Courts Family Courts
• Summary Courts

12
Court Structure

• Summary courts minor civil and criminal cases,
  no grand jury or preliminary hearing indictment
  through an information. Neither prosecutor nor
  defendant are present. Sanctions are fines
  both violent, i.e., bodily injury and assault,
  and nonviolent, i.e., embezzlement and traffic
  violations.
• Modified public trials streamlined trial for
  non-contested less serious offenses (larceny).
  Summary or district court.
• Regular trials district and family courts
  courts of first instance or, if prosecutor or
  defendant are not satisfied with the result of
  summary procedure. Noncontested or contested.

13
Court Structure(contd)

• Family courts jurisdiction limited to domestic
  relations, juvenile delinquency, and cases in
  which adults violate child welfare laws.
• District courts civil and criminal cases
  (except crimes of insurrection, family court
  adult criminal cases and summary crimes).
  Hearings are by one judge or three judge panels
  (both family and district courts). Civil legal
  tradition.
• High courts intermediate appellate courts
  three judge panels appeals come from family,
  district, and summary courts.
• Supreme Court one chief justice and 14
  justices cases on appeal are heard by five
  justices case concerns on constitutional issues
  are transferred to the Grand Bench where all 15
  justices sit.

14
Judgments

• The most frequent sentence from district and
  family courts is one of imprisonment with or
  without labor. The rate of 99 is typical.
• More than half of the prison sentences are
  suspended.
• Prison sentences for homicide, robbery, and drugs
  
• are suspended with and without probation,
• just as sentences for
• larceny, gambling, and road-traffic violations.

15
Corrections

• Japan has a low incarceration rate
• and a low percentage of persons
• under community supervision
• the majority of offenders are returned to the
  community
• without correctional supervision, i.e.,
• the Japanese shared sense of shame and
  embarrassment.
• The emphasis is on retribution and rehabilitation.

16
Probation and Parole

• Probation and parole are the primary means for
  keeping the imprisonment rate low.
• Probation is a complement to a suspended
  sentence. Requirements for the offender include
  1) the sentence is for 3 years or less or a fine
  of 200,000 yen or less 2) no prison sentence in
  the last five years and, 3) the offense was not
  committed during a previously ordered term of
  probation.
• Parole is not a right only the head of the
  prison may request parole on behalf of the
  prisoner. Certain conditions must be met for
  both probation and parole similar to the U.S.

17
Prison Sentences

• Persons sentenced to adult prisons are first
  classified and then placed in one of 80 different
  institutions.
• Classification to a particular prison includes
  the following criteria age, sex, foreigner,
  type of penalty, term of sentence, physical or
  mental disorders, criminal tendency, and
  frequency of imprisonment.
• There is a significant interest in providing all
  prisoners with work experience, both forced labor
  (94) and unforced labor (93).

18
Prison Sentences(contd)

• Prisoners spend 40 hours a week either working or
  spending time in counseling or academic programs.
• Prisons in Japan are more productive and
  progressive than those in America.
• Sentences range from fines to death.
• Of all cases that come before the prosecutor,
  less than 3 will end up in prison.

19
Questions

• With their low crime rates and low incarceration
  rates, do you think Japanese ideas of criminal
  justice
• are transferable to the United States?
• If so, in what way?
• Which is more important,
• group or societal interests as is the case in
  Japan,
• or individualism as portrayed in the U.S.?
• Explain.