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Reflecting on Comparison: A View from Asia

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Comparative Criminology in Asia

Abstract

This chapter reflects on themes developed in Comparative Criminology in Asia. It considers the practical and political character of asking comparative questions, and the theoretical traditions that inform comparative research. The chapter also summarizes a study by Setsuo Miyawaza that examines the reception of Asian research in mainstream Western criminology journals. This indicates that research about relatively few Asian countries, particularly China, reaches an audience in Western countries. The chapter ends with some optimistic thoughts on how Asian criminology might develop theories that recognize and address distinctive values, institutions, and practices in Asian countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are many different traditions and emphases in anthropology. Fernanda Pirie (2013) makes a distinction between the anthropology of law that is concerned with “the nature of law as a social form” (p. iv) and legal anthropology “which includes studies of courts, government, power, domination and resistance, and different types of social norms” (p. iv). See also Riles (2011), who makes a similar distinction between her own interest in the content of law and what she sees as the mistaken distinction made between “law on the books” and “law in action” by the law and society movement.

  2. 2.

    Ethnomethodologists are less vulnerable to the charge that sociologists do not address the content of law (and only study law in action), since they are interested in the technical content of professional work as an intellectual problem. See, for example, Bruno Latour’s (2010) ethnography of a French administrative appeals court that was influenced by ethnomethodology.

  3. 3.

    Although this sounds like an extreme viewpoint, there have been many similar concerns expressed about the modern world. One outcome of global warming, and the exhaustion of fossil fuels and other resources that might happen in the next century, could be that we will be forced to end the pursuit of economic growth and perhaps learn a different relationship to nature from Indigenous peoples (Mignolo 2012).

  4. 4.

    The editors thank Setsuo Miyazawa for permission to publish data from these conference papers.

  5. 5.

    The poster for one conference depicted a light shining from the East.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China

    Jianhong Liu

  2. School of Social Sciences, PB22, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia

    Max Travers

  3. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Lennon Y. C. Chang

Authors
  1. Jianhong Liu
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  2. Max Travers
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  3. Lennon Y. C. Chang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianhong Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China

    Jianhong Liu

  2. School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Max Travers

  3. School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Lennon Y.C. Chang

Appendices

Appendix: Publications about Asia in Flagship Journals

This appendix summarizes data from “The place of Asia in criminology outside Asia: Revisiting the question five years later,” presented by Setsuo Miyazawa at the eighth annual meeting, Asian Criminological Society, Friendship Hotel, Beijing, 18–19 June 2016.

Level 3 Papers about Asian Countries Published in 2005–2011

2005:

  1. 1.

    Liu, “Crime Patterns During the Market Transition in China,” BJC. C. Total counts of homicide and 5 other types of crime from 1978 to 1999.

2006:

  1. 2.

    Liang, Lu, Miethe & Zhang, “Sources of Variation in Pro-Death Penalty Attitudes in China,” BJC. C. Questionnaire survey of 60 students in China and 57 Chinese students in the USA.

  2. 3.

    Lu, Liu & Crowther, “Female Criminal Victimization and Criminal Justice Response in China,” BJC. C. Descriptive analysis of 67 cases (136 offenders) of 4 forms of sexual assault from 11 courts between 1993 and 2002.

2007:

  1. 4.

    L. Zhang, Messner & Liu, “An Exploration of the Determinants of Reporting Crime to the Police in the City of Tianjin, China,” C. C. Household survey in Tianjin in 2004; 2,474 valid questionnaires (97% response rate); personal violent crimes (robbery and assault), personal theft, and household theft.

  2. 5.

    S. Zhang, Chin & Miller, “Women’s Participation in Chinese Transnational Human Smuggling,” C. C. Interviews of 106 male and 23 female human smugglers in NY, LA, and Fuzhou; focus on women.

  3. 6.

    Lee, “Women’s Imprisonment as a Mechanism of Migration Control in Hong Kong,” BJC. HK. Interviews and documentary research from 2004 to 2006.

  4. 7.

    Trevaskes, “Severe and Swift Justice in China,” BJC. C. Description and critique.

  5. 8.

    Zhang, Messner & Liu, “A Multilevel Analysis of the Risk of Household Burglary in the City of Tianjin, China,” BJC. C. Same survey as (4).

2008: none.

2009:

  1. 9.

    Xu, “The Robbery of Motorcycle Drivers ( Dake Zai ) in China,” BJC. C. Police records, interviews, and participant observation.

  2. 10.

    Zhang, Messner, Liu & Zhuo, “ Guanxi and Fear of Crime in Contemporary Urban China,” BJC. C. Same survey as (4) and (8).

  3. 11.

    Wood, “The ‘Surveillance Society’,” EJC. J. Critique, using Japan as an example of developed countries.

2010:

  1. 12.

    Belur, “Why Do Police Use Deadly Force?,” BJC. I. Interviews of 38 police officers in Mumbai.

  2. 13.

    Lo, “Beyond Social Control,” BJC. HK & C. Triad organized crime in HK; documents and financial information.

  3. 14.

    Shen, Antonopoulos & Lampe, “The Dragon Breathes Smoke,” BJC. C. Cigarette counterfeiting in China; news articles and official reports.

2011:

  1. 15.

    Biddulph & Xie, “Regulating Drug Dependency in China,” BJC. C. The 2008 Drug Prohibition Law and its implementation.

  2. 16.

    Cheng, “Cheap Capitalism,” BJC. C. Food crime in China; legal cases, various documents, and 75 interviews in Zhejiang.

  3. 17.

    Lo, “Triadization of Youth Gangs in Hong Kong,” BJC. HK. Data from the six projects led by the author from 1981 to 2009.

Level 2 Papers about Asian Countries Published in 2005–2011

2005: None.

2006:

  1. 1.

    Bussmann & Werle, “Addressing Crime in Companies,” BJC. J, HK, ML, I. Telephone interview of 5500 companies in 34 countries.

  2. 2.

    Douglas & Straus, “Assault and Injury of Dating Partners by University Students in 19 Countries and its Relation to Corporal Punishment Experienced as a Child,” EJC. K, C, HK, I. Questionnaire surveys of 9549 students of 36 universities in 19 countries.

2007:

  1. 3.

    Antonoccio & Tittle, “A Cross-National Test of Bonger’s Theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions,” C. J, K, C, TH, ML, SN, SL, I, P. A wide range of data for 100 countries from public sources.

  2. 4.

    LaFree, “Expanding Criminology’s Domain,” C. I, P. ASC presidential address in 2006.

2008:

  1. 5.

    Pridemore, “A Methodological Addition to the Cross-National Empirical Literature on Social Structure and Homicide,” C. J, TH, SL. Data from 46 countries from public sources.

  2. 6.

    Rebellon, Straus & Medeiros, “Self-Control in Global Perspective,” EJC. J, K, C, HK, TA, I. Same surveys as (2); 32 countries.

  3. 7.

    Savage, Bennett & Danner, “Economic Assistance and Crime,” EJC. K, ML, I. Data from 25 countries for 13 years from public sources.

2009:

  1. 8.

    Koster, Goudriaan & van der Schans, “Shame and Punishment,” EJC. J, P. Data from the World Values Survey; questionnaire surveys of 128,243 people in 70 countries.

  2. 9.

    Nelken, “Comparative Criminal Justice,” EJC. J. Discusses problems in using prison rates in comparative analysis.

2010:

  1. 10.

    LaFree, Morris & Dugan, “Cross-National Patterns of Terrorism,” BJC. J, K, C, HK, TA, TH, ML, SN, SL, I, P. Data of 73,961 terrorist attacks for 206 countries and territories between 1970 and 2006 in the Global Terrorist Database.

2011:

  1. 11.

    Nivette, “Violence in Non-State Societies,” BJC. ML, I. Secondary analysis of ten anthropological studies.

  2. 12.

    Pridemore, “Poverty Matters,” BJC. J, C, HK, TH, SN, SL. Continuation of (5).

Level 3 Papers about China, Japan, and Taiwan Published in 2011–2016

2011:

  1. 1.

    Biddulph & Xie, “Regulating Drug Dependency in China,” BJC, C.

2012:

  1. 2.

    Cheng, “Cheap Capitalism,” BJC, C.

  2. 3.

    Huang, “Re-Legalization of De-Legalization?,” BJC, C.

2013:

  1. 4.

    Broadhurst, Bouhours & Bouhours, “Business and the Risk of Crime in China,” BJC, C.

  2. 5.

    Tresvaskes, “China’s Death Penalty,” BJC, C.

  3. 6.

    Miao, “The Politics of China’s Death Penalty Reform in the Context of Global Abolitionism,” BJC, C.

  4. 7.

    Sun, Wu & Hu, “Public Assessment of the Police in Rural and Urban China,” BJC, C.

  5. 8.

    Xu, “Police Accountability and the Commodification of Policing in China,” BJC, C.

2014:

  1. 9.

    Wang, “Extra-Legal Protection in China,” BJC, C.

2015:

  1. 10.

    Li, “The Cultural Idiosyncrasy of Penal Populism,” BJC, C.

  2. 11.

    Maimon, Wilson, Ren & Berenblum, “On the Relevance of Spatial and Temporal Dimension in Assessing Computer Susceptibility to System Trespassing Incidents,” BJC, C.

  3. 12.

    Wong, “The Organization of Illegal Tiger Parts Trade in China,” BJC, C.

2016:

  1. 13.

    Kong, “Buying Sex as Edgework,” BJC, C.

  2. 14.

    Lo & Kwok, “Triad Organized Crime in Macau Casinos,” BJC, C.

Level 2 Papers about China, Japan, and Taiwan Published in 2011–2016

2015:

  1. 1.

    Karstedt, “Does Democracy Matter?,” EJC. J, C, TA.

  2. 2.

    Van Dijk, “The Case for Survey-Based Comparative Measures of Crime,” EJC, J.

  3. 3.

    LaFree, Curtis & McDowell, “How Effective Are Our ‘Better Angels’,” EJC, J.

  4. 4.

    Bisogno, Dawson-Faber & Jandl, “The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes,” EJC, J.

2016:

  1. 5.

    Rogers & Pridemore, “A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Association between Percent Young and Cross-National Homicide Rates,” BJC, J.

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Liu, J., Travers, M., Chang, L.Y.C. (2017). Reflecting on Comparison: A View from Asia. In: Liu, J., Travers, M., Chang, L. (eds) Comparative Criminology in Asia. Springer Series on Asian Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54942-2_13

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