Title Everyday justice : responsibility and the individual in Japan and the United States / V. Lee Hamilton and Joseph Sanders

Published New Haven : Yale University Press, [1992] ©1992

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 290 pages) : illustrations Contents The problem of responsibility -- Social structure and legal structure: a comparative view -- Culture and the socialization process -- Responsibility: a research agenda -- Methods: experiments in surverys -- Responsibility: the evidence -- Punishment -- Is crime special? Offenses against strangers -- Empirical conclusions -- Legal structure, legal culture, and convergence -- The problem of justice Summary It is a fundamental human impulse to seek restitution or retribution when a wrong is done, yet individuals and societies assess responsibility and allocate punishment for wrongdoing in different ways. This book investigates how average citizens in the United States and Japan think about and judge various kinds of wrongdoing, how they determine who is responsible when things go wrong, and how they prefer to punish offenders. Drawing on the results of surveys they conducted in Detroit, Michigan, and Yokohama and Kanazawa, Japan, the authors compare both individual and cultural reactions to wrongdoing. They find that decisions about justice are influenced by whether or not there seems to be a social relationship between the offender and victim: the American tendency is to see actors in isolation while the Japanese tendency is to see them in relation to others. The Japanese, who emphasize the importance of role obligations and social ties, mete out punishment with the goal of restoring the offender to the social network. Americans, who acknowledge fewer "ties that bind" and have firmer convictions that evil resides in individuals, punish wrongdoers by isolating them from the community. The authors explore the implications of "justice among friends" versus "justice toward strangers" as approaches to the righting of wrongs in modern society. Their findings will be of interest to students of social psychology, the sociology of law, and Japanese studies Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-279) and indexes Notes English Print version record Subject Criminal liability -- Social aspects -- Japan -- Cross-cultural studies Criminal liability -- Social aspects -- United States -- Cross-cultural studies Sociological jurisprudence. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. Criminal liability -- Social aspects Sociological jurisprudence Rechtssoziologie Responsabilité pénale -- Aspect social -- Japon. Responsabilité pénale -- Aspect social -- Etats-Unis. Crimes et criminels -- Aspect sociologique. Japan United States Japan USA Genre/Form Cross-cultural studies Form Electronic book Author Sanders, Joseph, 1944- LC no. 91030647 ISBN 9780300160741 0300160747

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