Police in the Community
| Author | Walter L. Ames |
| Published date | 01 July 1979 |
| Date | 01 July 1979 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X7905200307 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Dr WALTER L.
AMES
Harvard Law
School
POLICE IN
THE
COMMUNITY
(Community
Involvement in Japan in the prevention
and
solution
of
Crimes)
This article will discuss how the Japanese police involve the
community in the prevention and solution of crimes. Perhaps one of
the most remarkable things
about
Japan
is the fact that it is a large
and fully modern, industrialized nation and yet it has a generally
dropping, or at least horizontal, crime rate. The efficiency
and
skill of
its police are certainly afactor in the crime rate but,of course, not the
only factor and, for that matter, maybe even not the most important
one. Japanese society and Japanese national character are probably
the independent or controlling variables in the formula that has led
to Japan's low crime rate.
Japanese society essentially polices itself, and the police, aware of
this fact because they are Japanese themselves and share in the
societal norms, consciouslyand skillfully make use of the community
in crime control. There is no notion in
Japan
that
crime prevention
and solution is primarily a task of the police.
It
is everyone's
responsibility. Crime control essentially operates at the informal
level, employing such basic units as families, neighborhoods, schools
and
businesses.
Certainly the homogeneous nature of Japanese society
and
the
strong group consciousness of the Japanese, as well as widelyshared
values of mutual obligation and responsibility are important factors
in the society's ability to control itself.
To try to understand how the police involve the community in the
prevention and solution of crimes, we should look at the police in a
number of settings and in interaction with various clientele. We will
first examine briefly the police in the countryside as an ideal type of
police-community relations. Indeed, the police in cities often remark
upon the rural policeman as a model in his closeness to the
community that they should try to emulate as much as possible. We
will then turn to the more diverse and impersonal urbanenvironment
and
see how the police have attempted to
adapt
to this setting in
involving the community. We will also note certain trends that are
worrying the police as to their possible future effects on community
cooperation. Finally, as an example of how the police try to involve
other segments of the community besides just neighborhoods in the
252 July 1979
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