Why Is Student Deviance Lower in Japan Than in the United States?: Influences of Individual, Parental, Peer, Social, and Environmental Factors

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567720939262
• Author: David P. Farrington,Emiko Kobayashi
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Why Is Student Deviance Lower

in Japan Than in the United

States?: Influences of Individual,

Parental, Peer, Social, and

Environmental Factors

Emiko Kobayashi

1

and David P. Farrington

2

Abstract

Drawing on the cultural collectivism–individualism literature, we predict that Japanese students,

compared to Americans, tend to commit fewer deviant acts because they are less inclined toward

individualistic value orientations, risk seeking, negative emotionality, and subjective stress; because

they are exposed to greater parental discipline and have stronger parental attachment; because they

have weaker peer attachment and associate with peers who react less favorably to deviance; because

they have stronger bonds to conventional society and greater social support from significant others;

and because they are exposed to fewer deviance opportunities. Analyses of comparable data from

college students in Japan (N¼469) and the United States (N¼594) provided mixed support for our

predictions. As expected, Japanese students committed fewer deviant acts during their high school

days. Furthermore, consistent with expectations, Japanese students had lower scores on all four

individual factors, the two peer factors, and the environmental factor of deviance opportunities.

After controlling for these seven factors, the effect of Japan versus the United States decreased by

one third. The decrease was not greater at least partly because, in Japan, compared to the United

States, risk seeking had significantly less influence on student deviance, and subjective stress had

significantly more influence on student deviance.

Keywords

comparative criminology, student deviance, collectivism–individualism, Japan–U.S. comparison

It is well known that Japanese, compared to Americans, commit fewer criminal and deviant acts

(Bui & Farrington, 2019). It is also generally accepted that the stronger cultural orientation toward

collectivism, which presumably forms the basis of personality traits, child-rearing methods, peer

1

Institute of Liberal Arts and Science, Kanazawa University, Japan

2

Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Corresponding Author:

Emiko Kobayashi, Institute of Liberal Arts and Science, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan.

Email: ekobaya@staff.kanazawa-u.ac.jp

International CriminalJustice Review

2020, Vol. 30(4) 365-385

ª2020 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567720939262

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relationships, social control, and exposure to deviance opportunities, contributes to the lower levels

of deviance in Japan. With few exceptions (e.g., Fukushima et al., 2009; Kobayashi & Farrington,

2019; Kobayashi et al., 2001), however, individual, parental, peer, social, and environmental influ-

ences on different levels of deviance between these two culturally diverse countries have not been

directly examined and thoroughly tested, which is the main aim of this article.

Several comparative studies of Japanese and Americans concerning criminological theories have

been conducted. Kobayashi et al. (2001), for example, used Japanese and English versions of an

identical questionnaire to study the effects of formal and informal sanctions on workplace deviance

among hospital employees in the two countries. Fukushima et al. (2009) tested the cross-cultural

applicability of social bonding theory with comparable data from college students in the two

countries. More recently, Kobayashi and Farrington (2019) assessed whether social learning theory

could explain lower levels of deviance in high school among Japanese compared to Americans.

These comparative studies were theoretically driven studies of the applicability of three criminolo-

gical theories, extended deterrence (Grasmick & Bursik, 1990), social bonding (Hirschi, 1969), and

social learning (Akers, 1985, 1998), across the two different cultures, Japan and the United States.

Consequently, these previous studies are not as broad in scope as the present article.

With our comparable survey data from college students in Japan and the United States, we examine

the extent to which cultural collectivism–individualism, which presumably is manifested in person-

ality traits, child-rearing methods, peer relationships, social control, and deviance opportunities, can

explain different levels of deviance during the high school days between the two countries. Specif-

ically, we focus on the influences of personality traits such as individualistic value orientations and

risk seeking which, according to Tittle and Paternoster (2000), are the causes of deviance that are

located internal to the individual and that, in most cases, are formed in early childhood and motivate

deviance. We also pay attention to the influences of child-rearing methods, peer relationships, various

forms of social control, and perceived deviance opportunities which, in Tittle and Paternoster’s

terminology, are the causes of deviance that are external to the individual and that, in general, are

learned in childhood socialization or upon entry to new situations. Therefore, we can extensively

assess individual, parental, peer, social, and environmental influences on the different levels of

deviance between Japan and the United States, much like other s previously have assessed these

influences across categories of gender (Gilligan, 2003; see also Tittle & Paternoster, 2000, especially

pp. 366–368).

Cultural Collectivism–Individualism: Implications for Personality Traits, Child-Rearing

Methods, Peer Relationships, Social Control, and Deviance Opportunities

A large body of research on collectivism–individualism in Japan and the United States has

suggested that American culture and American people are more individualistic than are Japanese

(e.g., Gudykunst et al., 1996; Kobayashi et al., 2010; Takano & Osaka, 1999). Our framework for

predictions concerning the individual, parental, peer, social, and environmental influences on lower

levels of deviance in Japan, compared to the United States, stems from this distinction. We argue

that certain personality traits, child-rearing methods, peer relationships, social control, and deviance

opportunities, which were identified by Tittle and Paternoster (2000) as causes of deviance, should

be more or less prevalent depending on the extent to which the culture and the individuals in it are

collectivistic or individualistic. These causes of deviance, in varying degrees, are then expected to

account for at least some of the differences in levels of deviance between Japanese and Americans.

The most widely known statement that Japan, in contrast to the United States, is more collectivistic

is Benedict’s (1946) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (see also Abegglen, 1958). The idea that

Japan tends more toward collectivism while the United States tends more toward individualism also

366 International Criminal Justice Review 30(4)