University Students’ Views of Formal and Informal Control in Japan: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Both formal and informal crime controls are used to deter individuals from engaging in criminal behavior in many societies, including Japan. This study used survey data from a convenience sample of 267 Japanese college students to examine the importance of formal and informal crime control. In general, there were higher levels of support for informal methods of crime control than formal methods. Respondents felt that fear of being rejected by family, neighbors, and peers was a stronger deterrent to crime than fear of being punished by the law. The respondents ranked family the most important mechanism in crime prevention, followed by peers, police, schools, neighborhoods, correction facilities, and courts. There was also a fair amount of support for blended formal and informal crime control methods. Mobility (i.e., the number of times the respondent had moved in his/her life) and age were positively associated with the belief that formal crime control deterred crime. The population size of the town where the respondent grew up was negatively associated with support for formal crime control. Students who grew up in larger urban areas tended to rate formal control higher than those who grew up in a small town or the countryside.