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

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 and support for restorative justice. The study draws on a survey of 1544 respondents from Japan and 1967 respondents from Australia. In both societies, restorative justice met with greater acceptance among those who were strong in social capital, who believed in offender reintegration and rehabilitation, who saw benefits for victims in forgiveness, and who 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.

Support for Restorative Justice in a Sample of U.S. University Students

“…To fill this gap in the literature, our study examines perceptions of restorative justice as a useful approach for reintegrating offenders and meeting the needs of victims compared with more punitive approaches, drawing on a sample of U.S. university students. In addition, to assess whether culture plays a role in determining support for restorative justice, we compare the results from our sample with those from Australian and Japanese citizens, as reported by Huang, Braithwaite, Tsutomi, Hosoi, and Braithwaite (2012).…”

“…We begin with a brief overview of restorative justice theory and a review of the extant research on perceptions of restorative justice, including a description of the study of Australian and Japanese respondents by Huang and colleagues (2012), which we partially replicate and extend to a sample of university students in the United States. Next, we detail our methods, including our survey instrument, and present our results.…”

Looking beneath the iceberg: can shame and pride be handled restoratively in cases of workplace bullying

“…The Australian sample for 'A Cross National Comparative Study: Australian and Japanese Attitudes to Crime' comprised 1,967 randomly selected respondents who replied to a postal survey questionnaire (response rate of 36.1 per cent; for further details see Huang et al, 2012). Of this sample, 1,045 responded to the module asking about workplace bullying.…”

A review of restorative justice responses to offending

“…The second (Huang et al 2011) involved separate telephone surveys of 1,544 Japanese and 1,967 Australians. The concept of RJ was described to participants, who were then asked if they supported RJ when imagining themselves in the shoes of: a community resident, a victim, and an offender.…”

“…community resident, victim, and offender). Unfortunately, Huang et al (2011) did not report the percentage of respondents in each country who supported RJ.…”