Economic structure and crime: The case of Japan |
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| Affiliation: | 1. National Musashinogakuin, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan;2. Tokyo University of Social Welfare, Japan;1. Orthopaedic Research Lab, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Via Sana Clinic, Mill, The Netherlands;3. Laboratory for Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands;1. Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan;2. Department of Policy and Planning Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems, University of Tsukuba, Japan |
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| Abstract: | Despite a high rate of industrialization, crime rates in Japan have declined overall since World War II. This is inconsistent with the “Durkheimian-Modernization” respective which argues that rapid socioeconomic changes increase crime rates. Although a number of qualitative studies investigate possible reasons for Japan's low and declining crime rates, few employ quantitative analyses with aggregate data. This paper systematically examines the impact of poverty, economic inequality and unemployment, on homicide, robbery and larceny rates among the 47 prefectures in Japan. The multiple regression analysis reveals a significant positive relationship between unemployment rates and homicide and robbery and between the degree of economic inequality and larceny. The poverty level is significantly and positively correlated only with homicide, but this relationship vanishes when controls for unemployment rate, the percent of young males and the level of industrialization are introduced. The implications of these findings for Japanese economic policy are discussed. |
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