The Criminal Justice System

While reading the text for this week, I found the concept of shaming very interesting as a form of punishment. The text mentioned that Japan uses this approach to crime and that only 5% of convicted criminals spend time in jail.

Living in Japan for the past four years, I had the opportunity to observe some of their reactions to Americans, in particular to Americans living in their country. The dynamic between the US military and the Okinawans is interesting, in that the Okinawans love the Americans, but they also love to hate us. This is my personal opinion, based on my own observations. The Okinawan media focuses acutely on the individual actions of US military members, especially when a crime is committed, or allegedly committed, against an Okinawan.

I think that the Okinawans' reactions to crimes being committed by US servicemembers against Okinawans are possibly being made worse by the US military's attempts to assure Okinawans that something is being done to help the problem. For example, if a servicemember was to rob an Okinawan, the US military would react by assuring the Okinawan public that the suspect is in custody and then that the suspect, after being convicted, is in jail. This would probably not be reassuring to Okinawans, however, since they might see jail as a solution that is only used for the most dangerous of criminals because of Japan's use of reintegrative shaming in their criminal justice system.

The Japanese use of shaming and low prison rates also explain Okinawans' strong reactions to people who have been in prison. People who have spent time in prison are seen as dangerous, even more so than in American culture. Tattoos are associated with prison, so much so that in some public bath houses, tattoos are prohibited altogether.