Young offenders' views of desistance in Japan: a comparison with Scotland

Young offenders’ views of the criminal justice system or of why young people desist from crime are rarely sought by policy makers and practitioners the world over. This chapter draws on a recent study of young offenders’ and ex-offenders’ views and experiences of desistance from crime undertaken within Japan, and draws comparisons with a similar study undertaken in Scotland. The focus of the chapter is young offenders’ responses to questions as to why and how young people desist from crime. The chapter prioritises their verbatim answers to these questions and, in comparing the responses between Japanese and Scottish young people, it concludes that despite concerns amongst criminologists about crime and desistance having different aetiologies within Eastern and Western cultures, young people in both Japan and Scotland have remarkably similar views. This consistency is perhaps based on young people’s universal status as ‘in transition’ and potentially marginalised as a result, rather than on any country-specific status as ‘young people in trouble’.