Everyday Justice / Lee V. Hamilton, Joseph Sanders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hamilton, Lee V., Author.

Sanders, Joseph, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Criminal liability--Cross-cultural studies--Social aspects--Japan.

Criminal liability.

Criminal liability--Social aspects--Cross-cultural studies--United States.

Sociological jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [1991]

Language Note:

English

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 towards 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Tables

Preface

One. The Problem of Responsibility

Two. Social Structure and Legal Structure: A Comparative View

Three. Culture and the Socialization Process

Four. Responsibility: A Research Agenda

Five. Methods: Experiments in Surveys

Six .Responsibility: The Evidence

Seven .Punishment

Eight. Is Crime Special? Offenses against Strangers

Nine .Empirical Conclusions

Ten .Legal Structure, Legal Culture, and Convergence

Eleven .The Problem of Justice

Appendix A. Summary of the Story Versions

Appendix B. Punishment Questions

Notes

References

Author Index

Subject Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300160741

0300160747

OCLC:

1059280483