Negotiating the family order and the initiation of methamphetamine use in Japan
| Author | David Brewster |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820971711 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820971711
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(4) 525 –541
© The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1748895820971711
journals.sagepub.com/home/crj
Negotiating the family
order and the initiation
of methamphetamine
use in Japan
David Brewster
Ryukoku University, Japan
Abstract
This article uses the concept of the “negotiated order” as developed by McAra and McVie to focus
on the role and nature of the “family order” in shaping the initiation of methamphetamine use in
Japan. Presenting empirical qualitative data from multiple life-story interviews with 11 men with
a history of methamphetamine use, the findings demonstrate that while there were variegated
paths that led to initiation of use, a common factor was family breakdown and exclusion. Given
the “group-oriented” nature of social organization and relations in Japan and the risks emanating
from marginalization from “insider” groups, understanding the importance of the ways in which
the ascription and negotiation of identities within and around the family can lead to initiation in
a severely stigmatized and criminalized activity in this cultural context provides useful lessons for
thinking about formal and informal responses to illegal drugs.
Keywords
Culture, drugs, family, Japan, methamphetamine, negotiated orders
Introduction: Negotiated orders, the family, and belonging
in Japan
Empirical studies examining the experiences of individuals who use illegal drugs in Japan
are extremely rare with most attention to date being paid to “what works”-style evaluations
of treatment programs (e.g. Matsumoto et al., 2014). This represents a crucial omission as
such experiences pose interesting questions and provide answers for why people commence,
Corresponding author:
David Brewster, Criminology Research Center, Ryukoku University, 67 Tsukamoto-cho, Fukakusa, Fushimi-
ku, Kyoto 612-8577, Japan.
Email: brewster@ad.ryukoku.ac.jp
971711CRJ0010.1177/1748895820971711Criminology & Criminal JusticeBrewster
research-article2020
Article
526 Criminology & Criminal Justice 22(4)
continue, relapse, and/or stop illegal drug use within a cultural context where illegal drug
use is comparatively low and which has often been considered an important testing ground
for criminological research (Miyazawa, 1997). This article considers the initiation of meth-
amphetamine use among a group of male recovering users in Japan, who, more often than
not, are considered as the “problem” population that dominate policy debates (Council for
Promoting Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse, 2018).
Here, the “negotiated orders” framework proposed by McAra and McVie (2012) pro-
vides a useful lens for understanding and explaining illegal drug use patterns through
exploring how individuals grapple with structural and externally imposed conditions and
establish meaning and identity through agentic action. This theory is based upon a syn-
thetization of two approaches that have been dominant in explaining offending behavior:
“top-down” approaches—which are “… aimed primarily at deconstructing the concep-
tions of criminal identity that both underpin and drive regimes of control”—and “bot-
tom-up” approaches—which focus on “… the ways in which regulatory mechanisms are
both experienced and lived: a core focus of analysis being the inter-relationships between
agency, structure and social action” (McAra and McVie, 2012: 349). While both of the
top-down and bottom-up approaches offer useful ways in which to understand constructs
of offending behavior, their rooting within a particular tradition has tended to preclude
gaining the benefits of the other approach. Thus, the “negotiated orders” framework
serves to bridge this theoretical gap, positing that formal and informal regulatory orders
ascribe identities onto individuals, which, through the agentic action of individuals, have
the capacity to be absorbed, negotiated, resisted, adapted, and subverted in identity for-
mation which in turn shapes behavior patterns.
A core aspect in the dynamics of both formal and informal orders is that they are
premised around an inclusionary–exclusionary logic. Those who do not exhibit the
required traits of a regulatory order become excluded through “secondary labeling,” in
which the young person is viewed by people in authority only through applied labels and
ascribed identities. Moreover, the authors point to the importance of power relations and
how young individuals seek to establish autonomy. Through attempting to gain control
through the subversion of regulatory practices, however, this only serves to attract disci-
pline and further the processes of social exclusion: “Discipline … begets further and
greater discipline, which reinforces the original impulsion to exclude and further restricts
the capacity of the labelled youngster to negotiate a new identity” (McAra and McVie,
2012: 368).
The inclusionary–exclusionary logics of regulatory orders—particularly informal
orders—are arguably more pronounced in “group oriented” cultural contexts in which
social relations are structured around deeply interwoven interdependencies between
group members (Braithwaite, 1989). Within such settings, the family is often posited as
a central pillar of identity, belonging, and community status. Engagement in deviant
acts—such as illegal drug use—have been shown to threaten a “pro-social” family sta-
tus, such as honor and “allowing the right” in the Greek setting, familismo in the Latin
American setting, or “keeping face” and respectability in the Chinese setting (Ayon and
Carlson, 2014; Fotopoulou et al., 2015; Li et al., 2012). While studies to date on illegal
drug use and the family in “group-oriented” cultures have mostly examined these rela-
tions once an individual has become a “problem” drug user, a key point raised is that
To continue reading
Request your trial