Group Violence in Crime: Analyzing Crime Severity, Group Size, and Juvenile Involvement Through Police Statistics and Newspaper Articles in Japan

Abstract

This study investigated the social psychological characteristics of group violence in crime using Japanese data. Two main hypotheses were examined: (1) crimes committed by groups, particularly larger groups, are more violent than those committed by individuals and (2) juvenile violent crimes are more likely to involve groups than adult violent crimes. Study 1 analyzed police agency crime statistical data and found that group crimes were more violent than individual crimes, with the level of violence increasing with group size. Additionally, juvenile crimes involved larger group sizes on average than adult crimes. Study 2 involved a quantitative text analysis of Japanese newspaper articles and revealed that articles containing group-related words frequently included terms associated with death and brutality, indicating a higher likelihood of fatal outcomes from group violence. Furthermore, co-occurrence analysis indicated a correlation between juvenile delinquency and group crimes. These findings support both hypotheses, providing evidence from non-Western data for research on group violence that predominantly relies on Western data.