This study examined the efficacy of multi-entity collaborative patrols in rural contexts through a quantitative analysis of GPS-tracked patrol activities aimed at preventing agricultural theft. We tracked patrols conducted by six organizations in two Japanese municipalities during the 2023 fruit harvest season. We found significant differences in patrol characteristics across spatial scale, movement patterns, temporal distribution, and physical route properties. Furthermore, the diverse patrol entities substantially improved both the temporal and spatial coverage. This study contributes to rural criminology and plural policing research by introducing GPS-based quantitative assessment techniques. The results indicate the value of plural policing approaches in rural contexts, where collaboration among entities with complementary operational characteristics can maximize limited resources for crime prevention.

This study examined judicial decisions on cases of intimate partner violence that rapidly escalated to homicide. We collected information on cases involving repeated violence in the same couple. Survival analysis was performed, focusing on 51 cases involving the homicide of either the victim partner violence or someone close to them. The results suggested that instability in terms of the perpetrator’s unemployed status and non-marital relationship might be associated with increased risk of intimate partner violence rapidly leading to homicide. Individuals close to the victims of intimate partner violence are more likely to be killed when the perpetrators were aware of the availability of support. These findings provide insights that might be useful for preventing future homicides following intimate partner violence.

The social and physical environment has been shown to influence the fear of crime. Little is currently known about the relationship between perceived neighborhood disorder and fear of crime in Japan. Combining census data with responses to four sweeps of a national public safety survey, this study explored individual-, household-and neighborhood-level predictors of fear of property crime in Japan. Consistent with theoretical expectations, multilevel models found that being the victim of crime, living in larger cities, and perceived higher levels of social disorder were associated with higher levels of fear of household property crime. Our findings underline the importance of addressing (perceived) neighborhood disorder in efforts to improve feelings of safety and security.

Theft of agricultural produce and equipment, especially fruit, has become a serious issue in Japan. However, current understanding of the kinds of challenges each agricultural region faces, which is important to prevent agricultural theft and farmer victimization, is limited. Against this background, the current study involved interviews of stakeholders from Japan Agricultural Cooperatives to better understand the current situation of theft of agricultural products and equipment victimization, the introduction of prevention measures, as well as cooperation with related actors in agricultural theft prevention. In total, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results demonstrate that situations of agricultural theft vary across areas, and a poor harvest may lead to higher risks of theft. It was also found that implementing agricultural theft prevention measures has been difficult due to the limited budget and an ageing population, including farmers. Additionally, in accordance with prior literature in Western nations, some farmers were reluctant to report their victimization experiences to the police. The current study highlights the need for introducing a system through which farmers can report their victimization to the police easily during the harvest season and for conducting empirical research on trends in agricultural theft with a focus on the possibility of displacement of crime. In addition, the study emphasizes the importance of implementing crime prevention measures that reflect the characteristics of rural areas and promote mutual understanding among community members.

Although previous research on the predictors of cyber fraud victimization has provided evidence of the impact of routine activity and low self-control on the risk of cyber fraud victimization, little knowledge is available in Japan. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no study has yet explored how victims change their risky online behaviors after victimization. Using data from a nationwide survey of cyber fraud victimization, this study aims to determine whether the characteristics of victims of cyber fraud in other advanced nations are applicable to Japan, with a special focus on those explained by routine activity theory and general theory of crime, and how the subsequent behavior of victims changed after victimization. The results of the ordinary least squares regression analyses demonstrate the applicability of routine activity theory and general theory of crime in explaining the predictors of cyber fraud victimization in Japan. Importantly, this study indicates that only a few victims of cyber fraud changed their behavior after victimization.

This study tested the effectiveness of a nudge-based intervention aimed at encouraging cyclists to lock their bicycles, thereby reducing theft risk in nonurban areas of Japan. In this quasi-experimental design, four types of signs (control, social proof, perceived response cost, and reciprocity) were installed at 14 bicycle parking areas in Fukushima Prefecture. The number of locked bicycles was recorded twice before and seven times after the installation, covering the period from August to December 2024. A postintervention survey assessed whether cyclists recalled seeing the signs. Findings revealed that all signs increased the proportion of locked bicycles, with the effectiveness of each sign influenced by the initial locking rate at each location. These results provide empirical evidence confirming that nudge-based interventions can promote behavior change for crime prevention in nonurban settings in Japan. Future large-scale randomized experiments are needed to further validate and expand these findings.

While public attitudes toward the police have been extensively researched in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan over the past three decades, no comparative study has documented the similarities and differences in how citizens’ confidence in the police is sustained in these East Asian democratic societies. Additionally, research into the simultaneous impact of instrumental, expressive, and normative models on public assessment of police in Asian societies remains limited. Given the introduction of Western policing philosophies into East Asian societies since the 1990s, there is reason to believe that these models may vary in their relevance in Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese contexts. This study utilizes convenience sampling-based online survey data collected in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in 2022, with 2248 completed questionnaires for in-depth analyses. The results show that Taiwan has the highest level of confidence in the police, followed by Japan and South Korea, respectively. Notably, adherence to procedural justice, police effectiveness, and residential stability significantly increase citizen confidence in the police across all three countries. While the likelihood of sanctions for wrongdoers tends to increase Japanese confidence in their police, the perception of safety concern and distributive justice positively impacts confidence in the police among Taiwanese citizens.

It is well-established that some people and places are repeat victims of crime. It is equally well-established that crime in many countries has fallen considerably in recent decades—the so-called ‘international crime drop’. What is less clear is the relationship between repeat victimisation and the crime drop, and whether reductions in crime have produced a more or less equitable distribution of crime across people and places. This study uses data from four sweeps of a national victimisation survey (2007–2018) to explore the relationship between the trend and prevalence of (repeat) residential burglary and vandalism victimisation in Japan. Results indicate high levels of repeat victimisation: households burgled and/or vandalised twice or more made up less than 1% of all surveyed households but accounted for 17% of all burglaries and 24% of all vandalism incidents. Moreover, although the prevalence rate of residential burglary and vandalism was shown to fall over time (residential burglary = 2.9% in 2007–1.5% in 2018 and vandalism = 4.0% in 2007–1.7% in 2018%), both crime types were found to have become more concentrated. Our results are largely consistent with recent studies in Europe and reaffirm the value and fairness of crime prevention interventions being targeted at and tailored to previous victims of crime.

Community policing plays an important role in Japanese policing. One prefecture in Japan installed a security box to facilitate community-based crime prevention activities, encouraging interactive partnerships with community neighbours. This study aimed to determine the time-course impact of the implementation of the security box on fear of crime. A questionnaire survey was conducted before, immediately after, and a few years after the implementation of the security box at two different locations. A series of analyses revealed that (1) the number of respondents who knew about the security box, passed by the security box, and saw security advisors staffed at the security box increased from immediately after the introduction to three and a half years after the introduction, (2) levels of fear of crime increased from Wave 1 to Wave 3, and (3) the security box was not associated with levels of fear of crime. Although this study did not provide empirical support for the effects of the security box on lowering fear, many respondents expect its effectiveness in improving neighbourhood safety and community crime prevention; moreover, it is necessary to determine its long-term impact.

Public confidence in the police has become an important issue in many countries because high levels of trust and confidence can allow the public to believe the police organisation is accountable and legitimate. Much empirical research on public attitudes towards policing is available in Western countries, and it has been revealed that community policing can affect the levels of trust and confidence in the police both positively and negatively. Using data from an online survey, this article seeks to address the impact of community policing on public trust and confidence in the Japanese police. The results of a series of hierarchical multiple regression models demonstrated that being female, participating in crime prevention and self-defence classes are associated with high levels of trust in the police, while being liberal and experiencing police-initiated contact are associated with low levels of trust in the police. The implications of the findings for theory, research, and policing policy and practice are discussed.

子供が被害者となる声かけやつきまといなどの前兆事案は，子供から保護者に被害が伝わったとしても，保護者が警察や学校に被害を連絡しないことによって被害が暗数化し，事案への対応が遅れることが懸念される．本研究では，保護者の子供の前兆事案被害情報に関する警察や学校への連絡意図を形成する要因の解明を目的とした．ウェブアンケート調査により得られた，ある政令指定都市に住み，小中学生を第一子に持つ20歳から59歳の男女(n=518)のデータを用いて順序ロジスティック回帰分析を行った．その結果，事案の深刻さや連絡の効果，連絡の自己効力感の認知が保護者の警察・学校への連絡意図に正の関連を持つことが明らかになった．

Purpose/BackgroundCity-specific temporal analysis has been commonly used to investigate the impact of COVID-19-related behavioural regulation policies on crime. However, these previous studies fail to consider differences in the intensity of intervention among cities and the impact of these behavioural regulation policies on crime trends nationwide. This study performs panel data analyses to examine how the declaration of a state of emergency (SoE) affected ambient population and crime in Japan, taking advantage of the fact that the SoE was implemented at different times in different prefectures.MethodsThe current study uses two sets of panel data of 47 prefectures for 22 weeks from February to July 2020: (1) the data on ambient population in five types of locations provided by the Google Mobility Reports, and (2) official crime data of six types of crime: residential burglary, commercial burglary, theft of/from vehicle, bicycle theft, sexual assault, and violence and injury. Firstly, an ordinary least squares regression analysis was performed to examine the impact of the SoE on the ambient population. Then a negative binomial model with fixed effects was adopted to examine the effect of the ambient population on the crime trends.FindingsThe SoE declaration was found to increase the ambient population in 'residential', and decrease that in other settings including 'workplaces', 'transit stations', and 'retail and recreation' in targeted prefectures. Spill-over effects of the SoE were observed on the ambient population of non-SoE prefectures. The ambient population have impacted five out of the six types of crime examined, except for sexual assault. After controlling for the ambient population, we observed an increase in commercial burglary and theft of/from the vehicle in all prefectures during the SoE weeks, compared to the weeks when the SoE was not declared.ConclusionsThe declaration of the SoE during the COVID-19 pandemic changed the ambient population in the SoE-prefectures, resulting the changes in crime levels as well. In addition, the implementation of the SoE in specific prefectures was found to have a contextual impact on national-level crime trends. Furthermore, the implementation of the SoE caused changes in some crime types that could not be explained by the changes in the ambient population, suggesting that the implementation of the SoE affected offenders' decision-making. It is also worth noting that the changes in ambient population and crime trends during the pandemic were observed in Japan where the behavioural regulation policy without law enforcement was introduced.

The aim of the current study was to examine the psychological responses of victims during sexual assault, focusing on tonic immobility (TI). TI is characterized by immobility in situations involving the threat of death or a threat to one’s physical integrity. In the current study, 143 sexual assault victims consented to participate in the survey and completed the questionnaires. An exploratory categorical factor analysis revealed that the psychological responses of victims during sexual assaults comprised two factors: TI and fear. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that victims’ fear during the sexual assault increased their TI responses. Furthermore, the high variation of violence, which was influenced by prior relationships between victims and offenders, increased fear and TI responses.

Based on the protection motivation theory and previous studies that discussed the effects of risk perception, perceived response effectiveness, and self-efficacy on behavioral intentions and changes in behavior, this study conducted an experiment to examine the effects of the Metropolitan Police Department's crime deterrence task force’s official Twitter account on crime prevention behavior. Information on the threat of communications fraud, the effectiveness of preventive behavior, and self-efficacy was presented via Twitter, and changes in behavioral intention, behavior, fear, effectiveness, and self-efficacy were checked over time. Participants in their 20s to 50s were assigned to a Metropolitan Police Department group presented with tweets about scams or to a control group presented with other tweets. The results of the analysis of the 60 participants in the police department group and the 49 participants in the control group showed that the presentation of information increased behavioral intention, but it did not necessarily lead to changes in behavior. Therefore, it was suggested that there may be other factors that increase behavioral intention and changes in behavior.

Previous studies suggest that some elderly people do not use an answering machine at home to prevent falling victim to fraudulent scams despite this being known as one of the most effective behaviors to avoid fraud. The present study explored the influence of optimistic bias on answering machine use and behavioral intention for preventing fraud among elderly Japanese people. A survey was used among elderly Japanese respondents (N = 1,598, Mage = 73.2, SD = 5.30) to examine optimistic bias and behavioral intentions related to preventing scams targeting the elderly. Results of statistical analyses demonstrated that there was no relationship between optimistic bias and answering machine use. On the other hand, optimistic bias positively affected the behavioral intention of penetrating a scam by pretending to be deceived if respondents encountered scammers. We discuss the effects of optimistic bias and other factors, such as gender, on crime prevention behaviors regarding fraud.

As with many other social phenomena, spatial patterns exist in crime and delinquency, and neighborhood contextual effects are known as its predictors. The exploration of neighborhood effects through quantitative methods, with multilevel analysis as a central pillar, has led to theoretical developments in criminology, providing a theoretical basis for social developmental crime prevention policies. The paper discusses the cartographic school, social disorganization theory, and systemic theory as ways to formulate neighborhood effects in criminological research, which focuses on spatial aspects. Section 2 discusses collective efficacy, multilevel crime opportunity theory, and devastation theory as important criminological theories that explain neighborhood effects using multilevel analysis. Section 3 introduces the development of empirical studies of neighborhood effects in Asia, including Japan, and Oceania. Section 4 presents examples of empirical research on the neighborhood effects on crime and crime insecurity in large Japanese cities through subregionally aggregable social surveys and systematic social observations. Finally, crime open data and collaboration between researchers and practitioners are presented as future prospects for the study of neighborhood effects of crime in Japan.