Explanatory Factors for Gender Differences in Vandalism and Stealing in Japan and the United States

• In Event: Culture, Psychology, and Crime: Cross-National Behavioral Comparisons

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to examine what factors explain gender differences in adolescent offending in Japan and the US and to what extent these factors are different across these two countries. Our first hypotheses predict that males, compared to females in both countries, commit more criminal acts because they are more inclined toward individualistic and masculine value-orientations and risk seeking; because they have weaker parental attachment and less parental disapproval of offending; because they have weaker peer attachment and less peer disapproval of offending; because they have weaker bonds to conventional society and less social support from significant others; and because they have more criminal opportunities. Our second hypothesis, which is linked to the concept of cultural collectivism-individualism, proposes that factors external to the individual, such as peer associations, are more influential than factors internal to the individual, such as individualistic value-orientations, in explaining gender differences in offending in Japan while the reverse pattern is evident in the US. Analyses of comparable data from college students in Japan (N=462) and the US (N=596) provided mixed support for our predictions. As expected, gender differences in individual, parental, peer, and social factors accounted, at least to some extent, for gender differences in vandalism and stealing in both countries. Contrary to expectations, the environmental factor of criminal opportunities did not explain gender differences in either type of offense in Japan. Furthermore, the most influential factor for gender differences in both offenses in both countries was peer disapproval of offending.

Authors

• Emiko Kobayashi, Kanazawa University, Japan

• David Farrington, University of Cambridge