Criminal punishment and restraint

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Law and Human Behavior
• Project/Area Number: 23101003
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Humanities and Social Sciences
• Research Institution: Toin University of Yokohama
• Principal Investigator: KAWAI Mikio 桐蔭横浜大学, 法学部, 教授 (40257423)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KUZUNO Hiroyuki 一橋大学, 法学研究科, 教授 (90221928) ; KINOSHITA Manako 同志社大学, 法学部, 教授 (00281171) ; HIRAYAMA Mari 白鴎大学, 法学部, 准教授 (20406234) ; KUBO Hideo 京都産業大学, 法学部, 准教授 (80378512) ; KIMURA Masato 高千穂大学, 人間科学部, 准教授 (80409599)
• Research Collaborator: 一般社団法人中央調査社 調査部 ; 株式会社マクロミル リサーチディレクション部
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 死刑 / 厳罰化 / 討議民主主義 / 刑事政策 / 更生 / 世論調査 / 刑罰意識 / 裁判員

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We made some opinion surveys, one of which is held all over the Japan in 2014 collecting about 1500 answers from 2500 samples, for find what recognition can change Japanese people’s opinion about penal punishment?
In Japan, supporter of capital punishment has been large majority. Furthermore, according to the opinion surveys carried out by Cabinet Office, Japanese People wants more and more severe punishment against crimes. However, they don’t know well real situation of crime or the practice of criminal justice. We found that as a person knowing well, he become tolerant for criminals. But this kind of knowledge cannot change so much their opinion. On the contrary, under the supposition to have some false accusation among inmates sentenced death penalty, 70% of Japanese people agree with stopping temporarily the execution. However, even in this condition, majority of them don’t admit abolishing death penalty.

Free Research Field

法社会学・犯罪社会学