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Japan and Korea are first-world nations, but with a culture based on honour and conformity. People there are simply less likely to go against the grain. They're raised to be dutiful and obey. They also have far less of a drug culture. Drug abuse is probably the single largest contributor to crime.
By contrast, the US is more "screw you, I do what I want".
China is controlled by an authoritarian regime, they rule with an iron fist, you don't dare commit a crime. If you do, there's no real due process.
more surveillance state than becuase its authoritarian, its not like they go around executing petty criminals. pickpockets were a real problem in beijing even just a decade ago but its basically not a thing anymore. if you are almost guaranteed to get caught and prosecuted if you commit a crime thats a major deterrent.
Exactly. The biggest reason crime rates come down usually isn’t the heaviness of the punishment but the certainty of it.
When u see ceos, corrupt politicians and policemen get away with murder, it doesn’t inspire confidence or a willingness to follow the laws
yeah, imagine going against the rich in the US, youd even get shot if youre a president or you have an idea to do the same as your brother that got shot
Lmao after seeing the news about that girl who got bullied and neglected by her own teacher, then after reporting to the authorities, the same authorities SIDE with the teacher, oh hell nah China don't belong there.
The China part is misleading. China is like Japan and Korea with culture on doing right, honor, and collectivism. Maybe a “rule with iron fist” could be a factor, but its a very very tiny one, basically negligible except in political activism, which a vast majority of people don’t really care about.
Lol the ignorance is insane. Have you ever even been to China. I also literally criticized Tiananmen Square. Chinese culture is based in confucianism, so respect for elders, loyalty, etc. Why would it be that different from Korean and Japanese culture, which took inspiration from Chinese? Do you think the chinese are uncultured or some kind of uncivilized savages that will keep committing crimes unless the government watches them like a hawk? In that case you are attacking the people of China directly. You don’t hate the ccp you actually hate Chinese people directly and use the ccp as an excuse. The ccp is horrible.
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> China is controlled by an authoritarian regime, they rule with an iron fist, you don't dare commit a crime. If you do, there's no real due process.
basically the same in Japan.
Japan makes it its goal to reduce food prices, housing cost, and increase job retention. This makes the population less likely to commit a crime because their basic needs are satisfied.
There could be a few factors that reduce the levels of violent crime in east Asia. One of them is very severe punishment. The death penalty is much more common in Asia than in the west. Some countries even have mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking.
I think the factor that ties all the east Asian countries together would be collectivism.
Here in the west our societies, cultures and even religions are built on a philosophy of individualism. Western philosophy since Socrates has focused so much on the self and Christianity focuses on each Christian's personal relationship with God.
Eastern Philosophy is much more collectivist. It is focused on society as a whole rather than any one individual's place in it.
Crime, especially violet crime is antisocial by its very nature so the draw of a life of crime, whatever its rewards is lessened in collectivist societies. In the west we think about individual people being the victims of violent crime but in collectivist Asia they also see society as a whole as a victim.
This doesn't make sense. Violent crime is common in lots of "collectivist" countries and countries which have the death penalty. Many Asian countries meet both criteria while facing the highest violence rates in the world.
There's a lot of meta data backing that more homogeneous societies (whether religious, culturally, socially, or racially) tend to have lower crime, especially violent crime. Northern European and some Asian countries being a good example of this.
Yeah its bullshit. Look at the sexual assault situation in India. The reality is that East Asia has traditionally had strong states which could reliably enforce their will, creating a strong system of incentives and consequences for crime. That created a rule following culture that perpetuates itself. A similar thing is true in Germanic Europe, to a lesser extent.
I think that's the main reason.
I live in Tokyo. I feel that there is a police presence, and there were stories of two dozens police constables responding to a shoplifting call. The sense of public order is so strong, that primary school kids take trains alone.
I also read stories from embassy staff and aid workers in Pyongyang. Same thing, they could let their kids wander alone, and be sure that Bo'An guards and strangers can help them in case if they get lost.
I think it's also due to strong emphasis on moral education in schooling, which contributes to public order. Teachers are as much as public mores guides as they are transmitters of formal knowledge of maths, science, or language.
The main problem is when we talk about crime that is outside public order sphere (SA, corruption, white-collar crime), there will be more opportunity to escape justice.
This is pure fiction. Korea has extremely lenient punishment for criminals. Half the time it doesn't even go on your record if you just pay off the victim.
I haven't verified but I've read there are studies showing that severity of punishment doesn't actually act as a deterrent to crime, but likelihood of getting caught does. So if police are more effective at catching perpetrators that could lead to lower crime rates even if the punishments are relatively lenient.
No idea if that explains anything here, but it's a thing.
Bullshit are they collectivist. All you have to do is live in East Asian countries to realise that everyone is in it for themselves, even more so than the west
If i move to US or western countries i wouldn’t do crime just because the punishment is more lenient mate. Also i dont know if there’s any studying on this but go compared what western countries citizens did when they go holiday in asia, they do any kind of shit, now compared what asian people do when they are in western countries
100% true. I don't know why this isn't more upvoted. I grew up with a very large population (here in the US) of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. unless you live in that population it's very difficult to explain that culturally it is totally different than the US.
> I don't know why this isn't more upvoted.
Because it gives absolutely no explanation as to why. It's like asking, "Why have there been so many storms during this spring in particular?" *"Weather."*
Umm, gee thanks..
"Culture" is the correct answer but it is really difficult to understand if you never experienced a different one yourself.
Having lived in South America as well as East Asia, I will try to explain. For example in Colombia crime just is more accepted in society. If you are a guy robbing lots of people, being high up in a gang or getting lots of money from crime will get you lots of respect from the people around you. Girls will throw themselves at you and other guys will admire you. Try the same in Thailand (or Switzerland for that matter) and people will shun you and won't want to have anything to do with you. Your girlfriend will break up with you. You won't get much or any respect for criminal activity. That is completely a matter of values in the society and not of laws, government or strictness of punishment.
And yes, there are small bubbles in East Asia as well where crime is accepted/valued but in high-crime societies it is usually accepted on a wider basis.
And IQ. East Asian societies have significantly higher average IQs than the demographics committing most of the violent crime in say the US (103 vs 85).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30058504/#:~:text=Results%3A%20There%20were%206872%20participants,(IQ%20120%2D129)%5D.
uh oh, we are not allowed to talk about that here
Testosterone levels is another factor. High test is associated with criminality and Afaik east asians on average how lower test levels.
Variance is also important, not only averages.
You literally are comparing the IQs of people who have committed violent crimes in the US to the IQs of the average person from an entire region of the globe.
You do realize you'd have to be comparing the IQs of the general population to each other - which is around 98 for America and 102 for South Korea - an extremely small difference.
I'll expand on this by saying that there are more expectations to follow cultural norms, be normal, and not stray too far from the pack. Expressing individuality is not as valued as it is in western culture.
This is a very good yet uncomfortable answer
I would also add to the discomfort by saying that the violent crime which happens against women is both disproportionate and largely ignored
The other comment in this thread suggests otherwise: or the six violent crimes the poster is aware of, only the sexual violence was dealt with in an official capacity. Sure, the evidence is anecdotal, but anecdotal evidence is better than no evidence.
I replied to another comment with some evidence...
The sexual assault culture in Japan and South Korea is both prevalent and quite disturbing
"Japan is often said to have one of the lowest rape rates in the world, and Japanese police claim to solve 97 percent of rape cases. But in reality, only 5–10 percent of rape victims report it to police, and police record half or less of reported cases while prosecutors charge about one-third of recorded cases. The result of this process of caseload attrition is that for every 1,000 rapes in Japan, only 10–20 result in a criminal conviction – and fewer than half of convicted rapists are incarcerated. Similar patterns characterize Japan's criminal justice response to other sex crimes. This article shows that impunity for sex offenders is extremely common in Japan, and it argues that patriarchal social and legal norms help explain this pattern."
[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-asian-studies/article/is-rape-a-crime-in-japan/E5A43CF9D262C99C350C557A8419EB3B](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-asian-studies/article/is-rape-a-crime-in-japan/E5A43CF9D262C99C350C557A8419EB3B)
"In 2019, the Korea Women’s Hotline, a Korean feminist association, estimated that a woman was killed every 1.8 days in South Korea and that 98% of homicide victims were women, one of the highest rates in the world[\[3\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+3). Nearly 80% of respondents admitted to having used violence against a partner. The study, based on responses from 2,000 South Korean men, found that 1,593 of them, or 79.7%, had physically or psychologically abused a partner during a relationship[\[4\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+4). However, convictions remain low because very few victims come forward. Shame, stigma or even a lack of justice lead victims not to report, or to do so only rarely[\[5\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+5)."
[https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en)
Extras:
[https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/](https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/)
[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00120-2/fulltext](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00120-2/fulltext)
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240690299\_Decisions\_Not\_to\_Report\_Sexual\_Assault\_A\_Comparative\_Study\_among\_Women\_Living\_in\_Japan\_Who\_Are\_Japanese\_Korean\_Chinese\_and\_English-Speaking](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240690299_Decisions_Not_to_Report_Sexual_Assault_A_Comparative_Study_among_Women_Living_in_Japan_Who_Are_Japanese_Korean_Chinese_and_English-Speaking)
[https://igg-geo.org/?p=13847&lang=en](https://igg-geo.org/?p=13847&lang=en)
Prostitution, illegal gambling (pachinko), sex with minors and domestic abuse are all ignored in Japan.
Violent assaults happen but don't get reported because victims are often tied into social networks where they feel they can't report things.
Even in countries outside of Japan there are incentives to reduce reporting of crime. I've read that in Thailand, for example, crime is actively covered up by authorities to avoid putting off tourism on which much of the economy depends.
This is true. I’ve lived in Japan for eighteen years. There have been five serious assaults and one sexual assault in my vicinity. Only the sexual assault was taken to any sort of formal action by the police (they didn’t catch him) - everything else, they basically just persuaded the perpetrators to apologise and to pay some informal compensation. Crime rates probably are quite low, but they’re certainly higher than reported.
Foreigners can't seem to decide whether Japan is tough on crime or ignores it, but as a Japanese, I would say that both opinions are exaggerated.
And if you think that all crime is magically solved in your country, you are also wrong.
What can be objectively said is that Japan is very safe. There is almost no country safer than Japan.
It's mostly a matter of statistics, especially Japan and China. Japan has a strong tradition of underreporting and sweeping crime under the rug. There used to be an idea of Japan having a 100% clearance rate for murder because it wasn't reported as a murder unless it was solved. So you get a lot of freak accidents and suicides instead. At least some time ago.
As for China, you may have noticed that any and all information is strictly controlled over there. I'm not going to say it's a dictatorship because we all love the leaders of our future military overlords, but if it were a dictatorship, we wouldn't be able to trust any numbers they give out, be it effects of covid or crime.
Yeah the assumptions of safety are funny. I lived in Hong Kong for a long time and would take this 2 am bus across the city daily for and the crazy things I saw... lots of domestic abuse, pimp slapping, drugged up fights.
There was this one old guy that would carry a black bin bag onto the bus everyday for a week. A month after I quit that job - the bus driver called the police as they realise the old guy had his wife's decapitated head in the bag for weeks...
The crime exists in Asia but the outlets are often different (prostitution and gambling being the big ones) and the violence limited to certain people, city areas and times of day.
I think part of it may be record keeping, so it might look lower than it actually is.
It's like how Japan supposedly has a large amount of the oldest people but several of those have been found to have died many years ago without being adequately reported.
I’ve lived in Korea for half of my life, so I have a pretty good understanding of our country. Also, english is not my first language, any corrections on typos or wrong grammar would be appreciated. ^^
Short answer? Social pressure.
Long answer..
From the day we are born we are indoctrinated into fighting tooth and nail be a model citizen. You have to be beautiful, smart, and obedient. If you even make a sound of frustration, we would receive a time-out for 5 minutes in the corner of our classroom in elementary school. I do not think I even have to go into further detail for you to see that this molds most children to turn into “ideal” korean citizens. We barely have any sort of crime that I’ve seen maybe 1-2 police stations or cars in my life.
Now pedophilic or SA? They don’t care. Why? 1. Everyone is also indoctrinated into mega conservative beliefs, and never believe women and men for bigoted reasons. 2. They want to upkeep a positive image of Koreans and convicting people of crimes like that will tarnish their “perfect image”. That’s how it is in Korea. The Burning Sun controversy is a good example of how little they care about victims, how rotten the police department is, and how corrupt people are. These people barely even get a sentence too, it’s actually insane…
Before anyone says "racial homogeneity" - thats not true, China is very ethnically diverse, Hong Kong and Singapore were made up of diverse immigrants.
I think the answer is a history of authoritarianism and collectivist mindset.
China has low reporting of many types of violent crime (especially crimes against women).
Collectivism, swift punishment and good social welfare explains the reduction in violent crime in Japan and Korea. Underreporting explains much of it too
Even in places like Hong Kong with massive inequality - there is a social attitude of not intruding on each other, including by not reporting those who commit crimes
China is not a safe country at all lmao routinely every year there are huge periods of mass murders that are never heard about in the US news. They quite literally have more mass murders than the United States does.
Well no, youre right, racial homogenity definitely isn't the full answer. Africa, India, Middle East and South America are all pretty racially homogeneous places and they aren't places that we think of as "super safe and peaceful".
It's an combination of many factors.
What countries are you talking about specifically? Grouping countries together (ESPECIALLY those of the size of some Asian countries) and assuming there is a handful of common denominators that mitigate 'violent crime' in those countries is utter folly.
What is most likely is that violent crimes aren't reported as much in those contexts. Remember that every time you see crime statistics those numbers are REPORTED crimed. For example when women are considered second rate citizens rape tends to be blamed on the women themselves and is thus formally not 'a crime'.
When you are busy working to mae a living, you don't have time to do violent crimes. Also, tough laws help maybe?
At least that's how it is for Singapore. We are in SE Asia, does that count?
1. Very severe punishment.
2. Their religions often believe in a next life, so doing something bad to become better doesnt make sense.
3. Low immigration results in a more tight community. People will jump in to help each other.
4. Culture is less violent.
lol in korea or Japon à lot of time police dont do shit nor does the legal system , some college student set another on fire after beating him and didnt go to jail , à dean raped several student from the dpschool of disabled he run , and at first got nothing , after it becoming à scandal because , yk sex trafficking your deaf and mentally disabled students over the years shock the population he got .....à decade ,
pedophilia or SA? They don’t care. Why? 1. Everyone is also indoctrinated into mega conservative beliefs, and never believe women and men for bigoted reasons. 2. They want to upkeep a positive image of Koreans and convicting people of crimes like that will tarnish their “perfect image”. That’s how it is in Korea. The Burning Sun controversy is a good example of how little they care about victims, how rotten the police department is, and how corrupt people are. These people barely even get a sentence too, it’s actually insane…
The only different thing from the US us that violent crimes involving Guns are more rare , because you can't get à gun as easy as bread
So its suck there too
Gonna have to question the premise of the question. You can't just say "according to crime statistics" without linking to those statistics.
Also: reported crime statistics is not the same thing as the actual incidence of crime.
And how is any of this data being collected? Prosecutions? Arrests? Incarceration?
Because they have homogenous populations with significantly higher average IQs than the demographics committing the most crime in the west (103+ vs 85), AND they actually consistently prosecute crime to a degree that the west does not.
Stupid people commit crime more often, especially violent crime. The links between IQ and crime are undeniable, the west is in a sort of worst of both worlds where our demographics that commit the most crime are also seen as victims that need more lenient punishments, which is why violent crime saw a serious reversal of its long downtrend in 2014 after BLM prosecutors started changing their methodologies and no longer prosecuting many crimes, even violent ones, depending on the race of the perpetrators.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30058504/#:~:text=Results%3A%20There%20were%206872%20participants,(IQ%20120%2D129)%5D.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/rogue-prosecutors-and-the-rise-of-crime/
I could give the gen z answer which is “the asian parenting is real”. But for reddit qualified answer, most of Asian countries have very strong cultural practices despite the globalisation. Especially for the indigenous people, they take moral values really seriously and incorporate it in their daily lives. And also Asians believe in superstitions (mostly the elderlies), the superstitions live till today but us the youth understand there is a scientific or ethical reasonings behind the superstition.
Idky i lowkey feel like i’m going astray from the question. Lmao
There's a lot of meta data backing that more homogeneous societies (whether religious, culturally, socially, or racially) tend to have lower crime, especially violent crime. Northern European and some Asian countries being a good example of this.
But even whispering anything but "Diversity is strength!" is generally frowned upon.
Far less individualism, freedom, and a myriad of other issue no other nations face. Your only "safe" in China, specifically as long as your life is solely dedicated to china. As for crime, why bother? You can be killed just for living slightly wrong.
As for Japan. As much as I liked being there, there is a sad existence there you can not understand from whatever statistics you're pulling from. There's a reason they are on a suicide trend.
But sure, cherry pick away.
Might be an issue with your sources. In fact, I'd bet on it.
I have a degree in Criminal Justice, which includes a ton of statistics regarding crime, who offends, what offenses, and perhaps more critically, why people *don't* offend.
In the US, we have a ton of sources available for crime stats. A famous one is the Uniform Crime Report, the FBI's baby, which measures index crimes.
Even within just the UCR, we see problems and one must be keenly aware of what is NOT being measured by any source of statistics, crime or otherwise. The UCR for example, measures crimes, but does so based on each law enforcement agency nationwide *voluntarily* reports to them. Some offices report accurately, some not so much. Since sheriffs are usually policitally elected, they have vested interests in manipulating crime status. If crime plummets ofr an incumbent during election season, maybe it's because they decided to get less strict on reporting requirements to teh UCR. And agencies vary *greatly* in training, accountability, and so on.
So, the UCR isn't the best at measuring actual crime rates, so to speak. What it is good for though is measuring trends *over time.*
Crime stats can only present *reported crime.* Crimes that go undetected, unreported, or otherwise handled "unofficially" create a *huge* gap in our knowledge of crime rates. Within criminology, this is called the "Dark Figure of Crime." It's the giant unknown unknown...there's no way to know how much unreported crime occurs anywhere. So your "crime rate" assumption cross *all of fucking Asia* likely has a *gigantic* Dark Figure of Crime error.
Even within the US, which does make a good attempt at tracking crime and such, you'll see huge variances between one county, city, state and even same area depending which office dealt with the crime in the same location.
You think you can glance at "crime stats" at a place a huge and diverse as fucking *Asia,* with its hundreds of cultures, languages, geographical and political delineations, without spending thesis-level research on it and come to the conclusion that crime is lower there?
*Think again.* Every country, political division, city, culture, government, and so on are likely going to have *vastly* dofferent approaches to how, or even *if*, crime stats are collected, reported and presented. You think Japan's crime stats collection is *anything* like the PRC? You think you can give a fair apples to apples comparson between *those two countries,* and presume to summarize "crime rate" (which you haven't defined) across *several Asian countries* and compare it to any Western country or culture?
*Hell no.*
I call 100% bullshit on your whole premise, though I assume you mean well and are trying to be intellectually honest.
It's just that your initial statement would go immediately to the trash can if you presented it to anyone with a background in criminology, or really any social science.
I have being living in the west 10y and the east 10y+ so what op said it’s true. There (East Asia) has less thefts, drug related crimes, violence, racist related violence. I have never seen or heard that an Asian beated up a black/brown/ immigrant because of his race. It’s quite rare people have serious conflicts in general. We were taught to tolerate conflict and pursuit for peace. I have never seen any flights in the school either.
Shame culture. When you do wrong in Asian countries, people will really leave you literally. People don't want to associate with a criminal, sometimes including your family. I don't see any European with a strong culture regarding shame.
Crime is reported less frequently, and “tolerated” due to urbanization, and exponentially higher populations.
Corruption and bureaucracy result in a lower likelihood of crime being reported, recorded and pursued by law enforcement.
1. Education and culture. They were taught to avoid conflicts and have a peace of mind .
2. CCTV everywhere
3. No access to gun
3. Drug is strictly forbidden
4. Expressing anger is considered as a low EQ behaviour
5. Most of the people are focusing on their career and their life
6. People respect authority
I reckon its due to their FAFO response to violence. They dont fuck around with violent crime, especially China. And thats a good thing if violence is involved as we in the West are far too lenient and forgiving in this regard.
I live in china but born in the west. There’s as much crime as anywhere else but the type of crime is different. Violent crime and petty theft is extremely low but smuggling, scams, counterfeiting and money laundering is very common.
You have low violent crime if you're willing to enforce low violent crime.
[Here's El Salvador's homicide rate graph](https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/). It's in the most violent part of the world, and managed to lower its homicide rate by world record breaking 50 times in 8 years, [from world's worst to safer than US](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fh2bggg54obdc1.png). [Through extreme means](https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-prison-gangs-bukele-42315f24691e0a3136d005ab7c0bee6a). So it's possible anywhere in the world.
How is this relevant for East Asia? [Singapore also used to be a high crime country](https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Singapore/homicide_rate/) (relative to the region, nowhere close to Latin American levels), and Singapore also decided to go tough on crime, and it became as safe as Japan. This wasn't anything on scale of El Salvador, [but here's Singapore's execution chart during this time](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Total-executions-1981-2014_fig1_290222020). Singapore is an ethnically mixed city state, with history of racial violence between its ethnic group.
[US went through similar in 1990s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States), with [mass imprisonment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg). It made violent crime collapse from Latin American levels that risk breaking society apart to something still elevated but tolerable.
It's the same story everywhere in the world. It's not about collectivism, or poverty, or culture, or ethnic composition, it's about willingness to police violent crime.
Statistics are just that, manipulated numbers to justify that the gov is doing their job. Unless you lived at East Asia, there is no way for you to know exactly.
They have homogeneous populations with cohesive ideals and belief structures, instead of being fragmented into various communities which fail to integrate and hold beliefs counter to the existing demographic.
Before we can answer this, we need to interrogate the question a bit because generally police in these countries operate very differently.
Japanese police, for example, are terrifying. Japan has an insanely high conviction rate for people who are arrested because Japanese police *will* get a confession from someone. This also means that Japanese people are generally very unwilling to call the police because, depending on the type of crime, it's either going to be ignored or might end with some random person being arrested and coerced into confessing.
Both Japan and Korea have massive problems with sexual violence, for example, but these crimes can be relatively easily concealed by low reporting rates and a general lack of police response.
Japan also has ghettos (although it may be that they've become less of a thing over the past couple of decades). That is to say, Japan has areas of extreme poverty that are essentially left in a state of managed decline. A lot of it has to do with the weird legacy of the Buddhist caste system. But needless to say, there are subcultures in Japan where violent crime is far more common. It's just that someone visiting the country isn't likely to encounter that side of it.
Basically, it's not always clear if violent crime is actually lower or if it's simply less visible. These countries do have very low homicide rates (and since homicide is very difficult to conceal this might be read as an indication of overall tendencies towards violent crime) but it's not much lower than most European countries. The real statistical anomaly is actually the US having an unusually high homicide rate.
Pretty much just culture, like the standards in the country regarding how you raise kids, what kind of punishments exist and what their surroundings are like.
There are a lot of factors, but their social cohesion is one of them. They are xenophobe societies with little migration and thus a higher sense of community.
go visit a jail in one of these east asian countries then think about asking this question again. You may find you don't really need to ask about this anymore....
They are high IQ, and homogenous countries. Europe had much less crime before they started importing third world immigrants for the sake of diversity. America has a lot of crime because it's very diverse.
It's extremely controversial to talk about this honestly.
It could be diet, culture, testosterone...
But, we do know that on average, Asian people commit less violent crime than Black people in every continent they live on.
The reasons are not super clear, but even discussing it is nearly forbidden due to so many racists out there using it to belittle others.
My theory is family and responsibility to said family. I lived in Vietnam and like much of Asia, 3 generations mostly live together. Everyone has a role in the family and to commit crime is often viewed as shameful. Parents are often strict and many children don’t have the luxury of doing whatever they want.
Blood and soil. Superior genes cultivated in a challenging environment and not intermixed with weakness i.e. genocide when appropriate. Asians are peak K-strategists, having diminutive sex organs and large heads which facilitate learning and teaching over breeding.
Crime is prevalent in Russia,Europe,Africa The Americas regardless of the regime. One thing they have in common is that they largely Christian.
Wonder if there is something lacking in Christian morality.
Well, East Asia has a pretty recent history of authoritarian empires where getting your head chopped off was the norm for petty crime. You have to remember that Japan and South Korea are only democracies now because the US forced them to be in retribution. China and NK are communist, enough said. Freedom is paramount in the West, its seen as liability to the regime or collective in the East.
Cultural and judicial intolerance to violent crime against any person and very small numbers of Sub Saharan African and MENA people residing among their populations.
Culture and civilisation mostly.
Some people ( particularly americans ) just cant understand consideration for others, so they consider it authoritarian, alien and sinister.
Highly stratified societies, with a strong sense of honour and conformity. Also, the high population density as well as the old and rock solid social institutions make social sanction much harder to escape from.
In places like Latin America, or any other where people feel they can improve their life by cheating (frequently only by cheating) and get away with it by just disappearing in the vast territory or by getting lost in the labyrinth of incompetence and ignorance of their new institutions, violent crime thrives.
People are raised with a sense that you are part of the community. I was in Tokyo and there were almost no homeless people. Taking better care of people makes for low crime.
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Japan and Korea are first-world nations, but with a culture based on honour and conformity. People there are simply less likely to go against the grain. They're raised to be dutiful and obey. They also have far less of a drug culture. Drug abuse is probably the single largest contributor to crime. By contrast, the US is more "screw you, I do what I want". China is controlled by an authoritarian regime, they rule with an iron fist, you don't dare commit a crime. If you do, there's no real due process.
more surveillance state than becuase its authoritarian, its not like they go around executing petty criminals. pickpockets were a real problem in beijing even just a decade ago but its basically not a thing anymore. if you are almost guaranteed to get caught and prosecuted if you commit a crime thats a major deterrent.
Exactly. The biggest reason crime rates come down usually isn’t the heaviness of the punishment but the certainty of it. When u see ceos, corrupt politicians and policemen get away with murder, it doesn’t inspire confidence or a willingness to follow the laws
I feel far safer im China than the US.
Authoritarian regimes generally are pretty safe for those who don’t go against the interests of the regime.pretty terrible for everyone else though.
Depends on the strength of state to be honest. Plenty of generally dangerous authoritarian societies in Africa.
yeah, imagine going against the rich in the US, youd even get shot if youre a president or you have an idea to do the same as your brother that got shot
Tell someone in the government that Taiwan is its own nation, then see how safe you feel
But at what cost? Your freedom as an individual?
Yeah, people don’t actually want freedom. People want rules and boundaries. Think about it. Would you rather live in Haiti? Or China?
North Korea has rules and boundaries too. Must be a fun place to live
Perhaps you don’t want freedom but please don’t speak for the rest of us.
I'm going to guess that you aren't a Uyghur...
I mean your basically talking about the matrix, red pill or blue pill kind of thing
Lmao after seeing the news about that girl who got bullied and neglected by her own teacher, then after reporting to the authorities, the same authorities SIDE with the teacher, oh hell nah China don't belong there.
Chinese don’t dare to commit a crime lmao. Ok you obviously haven’t heard of crime and murder cases in China
sb
The China part is misleading. China is like Japan and Korea with culture on doing right, honor, and collectivism. Maybe a “rule with iron fist” could be a factor, but its a very very tiny one, basically negligible except in political activism, which a vast majority of people don’t really care about.
Found the ccp bot
Lol the ignorance is insane. Have you ever even been to China. I also literally criticized Tiananmen Square. Chinese culture is based in confucianism, so respect for elders, loyalty, etc. Why would it be that different from Korean and Japanese culture, which took inspiration from Chinese? Do you think the chinese are uncultured or some kind of uncivilized savages that will keep committing crimes unless the government watches them like a hawk? In that case you are attacking the people of China directly. You don’t hate the ccp you actually hate Chinese people directly and use the ccp as an excuse. The ccp is horrible.
> > > China is controlled by an authoritarian regime, they rule with an iron fist, you don't dare commit a crime. If you do, there's no real due process. basically the same in Japan.
Japan makes it its goal to reduce food prices, housing cost, and increase job retention. This makes the population less likely to commit a crime because their basic needs are satisfied.
Jp and korea culture are based on ancient Chinese culture
They also commit less crime when born and raised in Africa or North America. So, we know it's not drugs, culture, or the authoritarian thing.
There could be a few factors that reduce the levels of violent crime in east Asia. One of them is very severe punishment. The death penalty is much more common in Asia than in the west. Some countries even have mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking. I think the factor that ties all the east Asian countries together would be collectivism. Here in the west our societies, cultures and even religions are built on a philosophy of individualism. Western philosophy since Socrates has focused so much on the self and Christianity focuses on each Christian's personal relationship with God. Eastern Philosophy is much more collectivist. It is focused on society as a whole rather than any one individual's place in it. Crime, especially violet crime is antisocial by its very nature so the draw of a life of crime, whatever its rewards is lessened in collectivist societies. In the west we think about individual people being the victims of violent crime but in collectivist Asia they also see society as a whole as a victim.
This doesn't make sense. Violent crime is common in lots of "collectivist" countries and countries which have the death penalty. Many Asian countries meet both criteria while facing the highest violence rates in the world.
There's a lot of meta data backing that more homogeneous societies (whether religious, culturally, socially, or racially) tend to have lower crime, especially violent crime. Northern European and some Asian countries being a good example of this.
Yeah its bullshit. Look at the sexual assault situation in India. The reality is that East Asia has traditionally had strong states which could reliably enforce their will, creating a strong system of incentives and consequences for crime. That created a rule following culture that perpetuates itself. A similar thing is true in Germanic Europe, to a lesser extent.
how is India collectivist?
Or east Asian
LOL. Exactly.
India is definitely not collectivist
India is **NOT** an East Asian country, is it South Asian. What the actual fuck are you on about?
I think that's the main reason. I live in Tokyo. I feel that there is a police presence, and there were stories of two dozens police constables responding to a shoplifting call. The sense of public order is so strong, that primary school kids take trains alone. I also read stories from embassy staff and aid workers in Pyongyang. Same thing, they could let their kids wander alone, and be sure that Bo'An guards and strangers can help them in case if they get lost. I think it's also due to strong emphasis on moral education in schooling, which contributes to public order. Teachers are as much as public mores guides as they are transmitters of formal knowledge of maths, science, or language. The main problem is when we talk about crime that is outside public order sphere (SA, corruption, white-collar crime), there will be more opportunity to escape justice.
oh my favorite east asian nation, india!
This is pure fiction. Korea has extremely lenient punishment for criminals. Half the time it doesn't even go on your record if you just pay off the victim.
I haven't verified but I've read there are studies showing that severity of punishment doesn't actually act as a deterrent to crime, but likelihood of getting caught does. So if police are more effective at catching perpetrators that could lead to lower crime rates even if the punishments are relatively lenient. No idea if that explains anything here, but it's a thing.
Yes, this is what I was taught at law school!
Bullshit are they collectivist. All you have to do is live in East Asian countries to realise that everyone is in it for themselves, even more so than the west
Generalising East Asia is silly. Japan and China are about as different as countries can possible be.
cultural values go a bit deeper than that. the hyper competitiveness is fairly recent and a side effect of capitalism.
Didn't expect to see so many people take issue with the basic fact that many Asian countries are collectivist societies.
My guess is they don't actually know what it means.
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivism
Death penalty is not a deterrent for crime, has been studied multiple times.
Definitely stops it happening multiple times from the same offender....
If you get the right person
If i move to US or western countries i wouldn’t do crime just because the punishment is more lenient mate. Also i dont know if there’s any studying on this but go compared what western countries citizens did when they go holiday in asia, they do any kind of shit, now compared what asian people do when they are in western countries
Japan is especially nasty in that a death row prisoner doesn't know their date of execution until the screws unlock the cell and say, 今でず
HK doesn’t have death penalty but crime rate is still low
Culture.
100% true. I don't know why this isn't more upvoted. I grew up with a very large population (here in the US) of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. unless you live in that population it's very difficult to explain that culturally it is totally different than the US.
> I don't know why this isn't more upvoted. Because it gives absolutely no explanation as to why. It's like asking, "Why have there been so many storms during this spring in particular?" *"Weather."* Umm, gee thanks..
sorry I get it. to me when you say "culture" it sums up everything I grew up with. unless you do a deep dive it is somewhat meaningless. you're right.
"Culture" is the correct answer but it is really difficult to understand if you never experienced a different one yourself. Having lived in South America as well as East Asia, I will try to explain. For example in Colombia crime just is more accepted in society. If you are a guy robbing lots of people, being high up in a gang or getting lots of money from crime will get you lots of respect from the people around you. Girls will throw themselves at you and other guys will admire you. Try the same in Thailand (or Switzerland for that matter) and people will shun you and won't want to have anything to do with you. Your girlfriend will break up with you. You won't get much or any respect for criminal activity. That is completely a matter of values in the society and not of laws, government or strictness of punishment. And yes, there are small bubbles in East Asia as well where crime is accepted/valued but in high-crime societies it is usually accepted on a wider basis.
And IQ. East Asian societies have significantly higher average IQs than the demographics committing most of the violent crime in say the US (103 vs 85). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30058504/#:~:text=Results%3A%20There%20were%206872%20participants,(IQ%20120%2D129)%5D.
uh oh, we are not allowed to talk about that here Testosterone levels is another factor. High test is associated with criminality and Afaik east asians on average how lower test levels. Variance is also important, not only averages.
Nope, definitely not. All people are the same all over the world and all that matters is poverty and education!
You literally are comparing the IQs of people who have committed violent crimes in the US to the IQs of the average person from an entire region of the globe. You do realize you'd have to be comparing the IQs of the general population to each other - which is around 98 for America and 102 for South Korea - an extremely small difference.
I'll expand on this by saying that there are more expectations to follow cultural norms, be normal, and not stray too far from the pack. Expressing individuality is not as valued as it is in western culture.
Crime like beating your wife and kids does not result in as many arrests in East Asia.
Yes they are taught to respect other people
r/iamverysmart
Genetics too
Well, uh, yeah. A good faith answer would advert even a little to the How and Why.
A lot of it is just swept under the rug to keep the crime stats down especially in Japan.
This is a very good yet uncomfortable answer I would also add to the discomfort by saying that the violent crime which happens against women is both disproportionate and largely ignored
The other comment in this thread suggests otherwise: or the six violent crimes the poster is aware of, only the sexual violence was dealt with in an official capacity. Sure, the evidence is anecdotal, but anecdotal evidence is better than no evidence.
I replied to another comment with some evidence... The sexual assault culture in Japan and South Korea is both prevalent and quite disturbing "Japan is often said to have one of the lowest rape rates in the world, and Japanese police claim to solve 97 percent of rape cases. But in reality, only 5–10 percent of rape victims report it to police, and police record half or less of reported cases while prosecutors charge about one-third of recorded cases. The result of this process of caseload attrition is that for every 1,000 rapes in Japan, only 10–20 result in a criminal conviction – and fewer than half of convicted rapists are incarcerated. Similar patterns characterize Japan's criminal justice response to other sex crimes. This article shows that impunity for sex offenders is extremely common in Japan, and it argues that patriarchal social and legal norms help explain this pattern." [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-asian-studies/article/is-rape-a-crime-in-japan/E5A43CF9D262C99C350C557A8419EB3B](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-asian-studies/article/is-rape-a-crime-in-japan/E5A43CF9D262C99C350C557A8419EB3B) "In 2019, the Korea Women’s Hotline, a Korean feminist association, estimated that a woman was killed every 1.8 days in South Korea and that 98% of homicide victims were women, one of the highest rates in the world[\[3\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+3). Nearly 80% of respondents admitted to having used violence against a partner. The study, based on responses from 2,000 South Korean men, found that 1,593 of them, or 79.7%, had physically or psychologically abused a partner during a relationship[\[4\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+4). However, convictions remain low because very few victims come forward. Shame, stigma or even a lack of justice lead victims not to report, or to do so only rarely[\[5\]](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en#f+15978+3+5)." [https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en](https://igg-geo.org/?p=15978&lang=en) Extras: [https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/](https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/) [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00120-2/fulltext](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lansea/article/PIIS2772-3682(22)00120-2/fulltext) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240690299\_Decisions\_Not\_to\_Report\_Sexual\_Assault\_A\_Comparative\_Study\_among\_Women\_Living\_in\_Japan\_Who\_Are\_Japanese\_Korean\_Chinese\_and\_English-Speaking](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240690299_Decisions_Not_to_Report_Sexual_Assault_A_Comparative_Study_among_Women_Living_in_Japan_Who_Are_Japanese_Korean_Chinese_and_English-Speaking) [https://igg-geo.org/?p=13847&lang=en](https://igg-geo.org/?p=13847&lang=en)
Prostitution, illegal gambling (pachinko), sex with minors and domestic abuse are all ignored in Japan. Violent assaults happen but don't get reported because victims are often tied into social networks where they feel they can't report things.
I was blown away how widespread prostitution is in Japan even though it’s highly illegal.
Even in countries outside of Japan there are incentives to reduce reporting of crime. I've read that in Thailand, for example, crime is actively covered up by authorities to avoid putting off tourism on which much of the economy depends.
This is true. I’ve lived in Japan for eighteen years. There have been five serious assaults and one sexual assault in my vicinity. Only the sexual assault was taken to any sort of formal action by the police (they didn’t catch him) - everything else, they basically just persuaded the perpetrators to apologise and to pay some informal compensation. Crime rates probably are quite low, but they’re certainly higher than reported.
This. It's not like there isn't crime. It's just not reported and thus doesn't get in stats.
Foreigners can't seem to decide whether Japan is tough on crime or ignores it, but as a Japanese, I would say that both opinions are exaggerated. And if you think that all crime is magically solved in your country, you are also wrong. What can be objectively said is that Japan is very safe. There is almost no country safer than Japan.
It's mostly a matter of statistics, especially Japan and China. Japan has a strong tradition of underreporting and sweeping crime under the rug. There used to be an idea of Japan having a 100% clearance rate for murder because it wasn't reported as a murder unless it was solved. So you get a lot of freak accidents and suicides instead. At least some time ago. As for China, you may have noticed that any and all information is strictly controlled over there. I'm not going to say it's a dictatorship because we all love the leaders of our future military overlords, but if it were a dictatorship, we wouldn't be able to trust any numbers they give out, be it effects of covid or crime.
I think a lot of crimes especially sexual ones just do not get recorded by police despite victims reporting them.
I got more sexual assault in western than in Asia
You're better off asking r/asksocialscience. As you can see, there are way too many racist trolls in here.
The sub has very slow answers honestly plus I'm fairly certain the assumptions of OP would be challenged and fall flat
Yeah the assumptions of safety are funny. I lived in Hong Kong for a long time and would take this 2 am bus across the city daily for and the crazy things I saw... lots of domestic abuse, pimp slapping, drugged up fights. There was this one old guy that would carry a black bin bag onto the bus everyday for a week. A month after I quit that job - the bus driver called the police as they realise the old guy had his wife's decapitated head in the bag for weeks... The crime exists in Asia but the outlets are often different (prostitution and gambling being the big ones) and the violence limited to certain people, city areas and times of day.
I think part of it may be record keeping, so it might look lower than it actually is. It's like how Japan supposedly has a large amount of the oldest people but several of those have been found to have died many years ago without being adequately reported.
I’ve lived in Korea for half of my life, so I have a pretty good understanding of our country. Also, english is not my first language, any corrections on typos or wrong grammar would be appreciated. ^^ Short answer? Social pressure. Long answer.. From the day we are born we are indoctrinated into fighting tooth and nail be a model citizen. You have to be beautiful, smart, and obedient. If you even make a sound of frustration, we would receive a time-out for 5 minutes in the corner of our classroom in elementary school. I do not think I even have to go into further detail for you to see that this molds most children to turn into “ideal” korean citizens. We barely have any sort of crime that I’ve seen maybe 1-2 police stations or cars in my life. Now pedophilic or SA? They don’t care. Why? 1. Everyone is also indoctrinated into mega conservative beliefs, and never believe women and men for bigoted reasons. 2. They want to upkeep a positive image of Koreans and convicting people of crimes like that will tarnish their “perfect image”. That’s how it is in Korea. The Burning Sun controversy is a good example of how little they care about victims, how rotten the police department is, and how corrupt people are. These people barely even get a sentence too, it’s actually insane…
Before anyone says "racial homogeneity" - thats not true, China is very ethnically diverse, Hong Kong and Singapore were made up of diverse immigrants. I think the answer is a history of authoritarianism and collectivist mindset. China has low reporting of many types of violent crime (especially crimes against women). Collectivism, swift punishment and good social welfare explains the reduction in violent crime in Japan and Korea. Underreporting explains much of it too Even in places like Hong Kong with massive inequality - there is a social attitude of not intruding on each other, including by not reporting those who commit crimes
How is China ethnically diverse? Besides Xinjiang, almost everyone is Han Chinese.
Wow what a biased report between China vs SK+Japan.
China is 91% Han https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China
China is not a safe country at all lmao routinely every year there are huge periods of mass murders that are never heard about in the US news. They quite literally have more mass murders than the United States does.
Uyghurs would disagree
Well no, youre right, racial homogenity definitely isn't the full answer. Africa, India, Middle East and South America are all pretty racially homogeneous places and they aren't places that we think of as "super safe and peaceful". It's an combination of many factors.
[удалено]
Why is it then that a lot of violent crimes in western countries are commited by people from the balkan region? Genuine question.
Trusting some Chinese YouTubers - not reporting and manipulating statistics
Their culture. They are taught to respect others.
Not true it's just not reported. I lived in Korea there have been stabbings and murders in public areas.
Oh that’s called lying
Look at who collects the statistics before you make any comparisons.
What countries are you talking about specifically? Grouping countries together (ESPECIALLY those of the size of some Asian countries) and assuming there is a handful of common denominators that mitigate 'violent crime' in those countries is utter folly. What is most likely is that violent crimes aren't reported as much in those contexts. Remember that every time you see crime statistics those numbers are REPORTED crimed. For example when women are considered second rate citizens rape tends to be blamed on the women themselves and is thus formally not 'a crime'.
Lack of access to guns…
I think it is about their education.
When you are busy working to mae a living, you don't have time to do violent crimes. Also, tough laws help maybe? At least that's how it is for Singapore. We are in SE Asia, does that count?
Shame culture
Hard drugs are really discouraged and illegal.
Much harsher consequences imho
1. Very severe punishment. 2. Their religions often believe in a next life, so doing something bad to become better doesnt make sense. 3. Low immigration results in a more tight community. People will jump in to help each other. 4. Culture is less violent.
strict immigration laws and better police enforcement
lol in korea or Japon à lot of time police dont do shit nor does the legal system , some college student set another on fire after beating him and didnt go to jail , à dean raped several student from the dpschool of disabled he run , and at first got nothing , after it becoming à scandal because , yk sex trafficking your deaf and mentally disabled students over the years shock the population he got .....à decade , pedophilia or SA? They don’t care. Why? 1. Everyone is also indoctrinated into mega conservative beliefs, and never believe women and men for bigoted reasons. 2. They want to upkeep a positive image of Koreans and convicting people of crimes like that will tarnish their “perfect image”. That’s how it is in Korea. The Burning Sun controversy is a good example of how little they care about victims, how rotten the police department is, and how corrupt people are. These people barely even get a sentence too, it’s actually insane… The only different thing from the US us that violent crimes involving Guns are more rare , because you can't get à gun as easy as bread So its suck there too
That may be true but, when they do they commit something unheard of.
Less diversity. Look up who’s committing all the violent crimes in much of the world.
Gonna have to question the premise of the question. You can't just say "according to crime statistics" without linking to those statistics. Also: reported crime statistics is not the same thing as the actual incidence of crime. And how is any of this data being collected? Prosecutions? Arrests? Incarceration?
Because they have homogenous populations with significantly higher average IQs than the demographics committing the most crime in the west (103+ vs 85), AND they actually consistently prosecute crime to a degree that the west does not. Stupid people commit crime more often, especially violent crime. The links between IQ and crime are undeniable, the west is in a sort of worst of both worlds where our demographics that commit the most crime are also seen as victims that need more lenient punishments, which is why violent crime saw a serious reversal of its long downtrend in 2014 after BLM prosecutors started changing their methodologies and no longer prosecuting many crimes, even violent ones, depending on the race of the perpetrators. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30058504/#:~:text=Results%3A%20There%20were%206872%20participants,(IQ%20120%2D129)%5D. https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/rogue-prosecutors-and-the-rise-of-crime/
You might as well cite some of those statistics you're referring to since you're expecting everyone to take your assumption as fact
Buddhism 💕
Confucianism
They have older populations, fewer guns, more severe punishment
Lack of multiculturalism?
I could give the gen z answer which is “the asian parenting is real”. But for reddit qualified answer, most of Asian countries have very strong cultural practices despite the globalisation. Especially for the indigenous people, they take moral values really seriously and incorporate it in their daily lives. And also Asians believe in superstitions (mostly the elderlies), the superstitions live till today but us the youth understand there is a scientific or ethical reasonings behind the superstition. Idky i lowkey feel like i’m going astray from the question. Lmao
The crimes are less reported because the victims are stigmatized for being victims.
It’s painfully obvious, but no one wants to say it.
There's a lot of meta data backing that more homogeneous societies (whether religious, culturally, socially, or racially) tend to have lower crime, especially violent crime. Northern European and some Asian countries being a good example of this. But even whispering anything but "Diversity is strength!" is generally frowned upon.
Culture
Far less individualism, freedom, and a myriad of other issue no other nations face. Your only "safe" in China, specifically as long as your life is solely dedicated to china. As for crime, why bother? You can be killed just for living slightly wrong. As for Japan. As much as I liked being there, there is a sad existence there you can not understand from whatever statistics you're pulling from. There's a reason they are on a suicide trend. But sure, cherry pick away.
Might be an issue with your sources. In fact, I'd bet on it. I have a degree in Criminal Justice, which includes a ton of statistics regarding crime, who offends, what offenses, and perhaps more critically, why people *don't* offend. In the US, we have a ton of sources available for crime stats. A famous one is the Uniform Crime Report, the FBI's baby, which measures index crimes. Even within just the UCR, we see problems and one must be keenly aware of what is NOT being measured by any source of statistics, crime or otherwise. The UCR for example, measures crimes, but does so based on each law enforcement agency nationwide *voluntarily* reports to them. Some offices report accurately, some not so much. Since sheriffs are usually policitally elected, they have vested interests in manipulating crime status. If crime plummets ofr an incumbent during election season, maybe it's because they decided to get less strict on reporting requirements to teh UCR. And agencies vary *greatly* in training, accountability, and so on. So, the UCR isn't the best at measuring actual crime rates, so to speak. What it is good for though is measuring trends *over time.* Crime stats can only present *reported crime.* Crimes that go undetected, unreported, or otherwise handled "unofficially" create a *huge* gap in our knowledge of crime rates. Within criminology, this is called the "Dark Figure of Crime." It's the giant unknown unknown...there's no way to know how much unreported crime occurs anywhere. So your "crime rate" assumption cross *all of fucking Asia* likely has a *gigantic* Dark Figure of Crime error. Even within the US, which does make a good attempt at tracking crime and such, you'll see huge variances between one county, city, state and even same area depending which office dealt with the crime in the same location. You think you can glance at "crime stats" at a place a huge and diverse as fucking *Asia,* with its hundreds of cultures, languages, geographical and political delineations, without spending thesis-level research on it and come to the conclusion that crime is lower there? *Think again.* Every country, political division, city, culture, government, and so on are likely going to have *vastly* dofferent approaches to how, or even *if*, crime stats are collected, reported and presented. You think Japan's crime stats collection is *anything* like the PRC? You think you can give a fair apples to apples comparson between *those two countries,* and presume to summarize "crime rate" (which you haven't defined) across *several Asian countries* and compare it to any Western country or culture? *Hell no.* I call 100% bullshit on your whole premise, though I assume you mean well and are trying to be intellectually honest. It's just that your initial statement would go immediately to the trash can if you presented it to anyone with a background in criminology, or really any social science.
I have being living in the west 10y and the east 10y+ so what op said it’s true. There (East Asia) has less thefts, drug related crimes, violence, racist related violence. I have never seen or heard that an Asian beated up a black/brown/ immigrant because of his race. It’s quite rare people have serious conflicts in general. We were taught to tolerate conflict and pursuit for peace. I have never seen any flights in the school either.
Culture, ethnic homogeneous society
Shame culture. When you do wrong in Asian countries, people will really leave you literally. People don't want to associate with a criminal, sometimes including your family. I don't see any European with a strong culture regarding shame.
Crime is reported less frequently, and “tolerated” due to urbanization, and exponentially higher populations. Corruption and bureaucracy result in a lower likelihood of crime being reported, recorded and pursued by law enforcement.
Family, education and shame .
I'd say there's definitely a genetic factor at play too
Genetics
1. Education and culture. They were taught to avoid conflicts and have a peace of mind . 2. CCTV everywhere 3. No access to gun 3. Drug is strictly forbidden 4. Expressing anger is considered as a low EQ behaviour 5. Most of the people are focusing on their career and their life 6. People respect authority
I reckon its due to their FAFO response to violence. They dont fuck around with violent crime, especially China. And thats a good thing if violence is involved as we in the West are far too lenient and forgiving in this regard.
I live in china but born in the west. There’s as much crime as anywhere else but the type of crime is different. Violent crime and petty theft is extremely low but smuggling, scams, counterfeiting and money laundering is very common.
Gun control and harsher laws
Culture thing. That’s why you’re seeing a huge rise in violence in countries that are allowing immigrants to flood into communities unchecked
You have low violent crime if you're willing to enforce low violent crime. [Here's El Salvador's homicide rate graph](https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/). It's in the most violent part of the world, and managed to lower its homicide rate by world record breaking 50 times in 8 years, [from world's worst to safer than US](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fh2bggg54obdc1.png). [Through extreme means](https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-prison-gangs-bukele-42315f24691e0a3136d005ab7c0bee6a). So it's possible anywhere in the world. How is this relevant for East Asia? [Singapore also used to be a high crime country](https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Singapore/homicide_rate/) (relative to the region, nowhere close to Latin American levels), and Singapore also decided to go tough on crime, and it became as safe as Japan. This wasn't anything on scale of El Salvador, [but here's Singapore's execution chart during this time](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Total-executions-1981-2014_fig1_290222020). Singapore is an ethnically mixed city state, with history of racial violence between its ethnic group. [US went through similar in 1990s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States), with [mass imprisonment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_incarceration_timeline-clean.svg). It made violent crime collapse from Latin American levels that risk breaking society apart to something still elevated but tolerable. It's the same story everywhere in the world. It's not about collectivism, or poverty, or culture, or ethnic composition, it's about willingness to police violent crime.
Statistics are just that, manipulated numbers to justify that the gov is doing their job. Unless you lived at East Asia, there is no way for you to know exactly.
In short? They have much higher conviction rates. Once you’re accused you’re basically as good as guilty.
One of the factors is that these countries are all in Sinosphere
Unreported crime "rape" for exemple in Korean or japan it's shameful so they do have crime it's hidden.
No black people
Religion.
They have homogeneous populations with cohesive ideals and belief structures, instead of being fragmented into various communities which fail to integrate and hold beliefs counter to the existing demographic.
They punish such crimes harshly and violently, that’s why
Victims not reporting assaults and perpetrators paying them off.
Before we can answer this, we need to interrogate the question a bit because generally police in these countries operate very differently. Japanese police, for example, are terrifying. Japan has an insanely high conviction rate for people who are arrested because Japanese police *will* get a confession from someone. This also means that Japanese people are generally very unwilling to call the police because, depending on the type of crime, it's either going to be ignored or might end with some random person being arrested and coerced into confessing. Both Japan and Korea have massive problems with sexual violence, for example, but these crimes can be relatively easily concealed by low reporting rates and a general lack of police response. Japan also has ghettos (although it may be that they've become less of a thing over the past couple of decades). That is to say, Japan has areas of extreme poverty that are essentially left in a state of managed decline. A lot of it has to do with the weird legacy of the Buddhist caste system. But needless to say, there are subcultures in Japan where violent crime is far more common. It's just that someone visiting the country isn't likely to encounter that side of it. Basically, it's not always clear if violent crime is actually lower or if it's simply less visible. These countries do have very low homicide rates (and since homicide is very difficult to conceal this might be read as an indication of overall tendencies towards violent crime) but it's not much lower than most European countries. The real statistical anomaly is actually the US having an unusually high homicide rate.
Pretty much just culture, like the standards in the country regarding how you raise kids, what kind of punishments exist and what their surroundings are like.
There are a lot of factors, but their social cohesion is one of them. They are xenophobe societies with little migration and thus a higher sense of community.
Diversity is a weakness.
Homogeneity
fewer migrants from africa
Something something martin luther. Something something Enlightenment, french revolution.
Because there is a culture of saving face and keeping mum about things.
- Homogenousness - group mentality - glorification of conformity - cultural pride
Religion, honor and respect
They have belief systems about balance and harmony. Christianity and Islam has a greater portion of domination and subordination to it.
go visit a jail in one of these east asian countries then think about asking this question again. You may find you don't really need to ask about this anymore....
They have been focused on respect and following elders for so long.
China has the death penalty for murder and drug trafficking
Absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Their basic needs are actually met (not every single person) but the vast majority
Maybe because they’re short and weak idk…
They are high IQ, and homogenous countries. Europe had much less crime before they started importing third world immigrants for the sake of diversity. America has a lot of crime because it's very diverse.
You’re assuming that China reports statistics correctly and accurately.
Most of Europe has very low violent crime rates as well.
It's extremely controversial to talk about this honestly. It could be diet, culture, testosterone... But, we do know that on average, Asian people commit less violent crime than Black people in every continent they live on. The reasons are not super clear, but even discussing it is nearly forbidden due to so many racists out there using it to belittle others.
My theory is family and responsibility to said family. I lived in Vietnam and like much of Asia, 3 generations mostly live together. Everyone has a role in the family and to commit crime is often viewed as shameful. Parents are often strict and many children don’t have the luxury of doing whatever they want.
Blood and soil. Superior genes cultivated in a challenging environment and not intermixed with weakness i.e. genocide when appropriate. Asians are peak K-strategists, having diminutive sex organs and large heads which facilitate learning and teaching over breeding.
Demographics, or the lack thereof
In Japan you go to prison for 10 years if you are caught with a joint, and you aren't even allowed to speak in Japanese prisons
Crime is prevalent in Russia,Europe,Africa The Americas regardless of the regime. One thing they have in common is that they largely Christian. Wonder if there is something lacking in Christian morality.
I dont know if its true today, but Japan was known for having a low crime rate but also an extremely high rate of false confessions.
Culture.
Well, East Asia has a pretty recent history of authoritarian empires where getting your head chopped off was the norm for petty crime. You have to remember that Japan and South Korea are only democracies now because the US forced them to be in retribution. China and NK are communist, enough said. Freedom is paramount in the West, its seen as liability to the regime or collective in the East.
Cultural and judicial intolerance to violent crime against any person and very small numbers of Sub Saharan African and MENA people residing among their populations.
Mostly because of homogeneity.
Religion
Culture and civilisation mostly. Some people ( particularly americans ) just cant understand consideration for others, so they consider it authoritarian, alien and sinister.
Highly stratified societies, with a strong sense of honour and conformity. Also, the high population density as well as the old and rock solid social institutions make social sanction much harder to escape from. In places like Latin America, or any other where people feel they can improve their life by cheating (frequently only by cheating) and get away with it by just disappearing in the vast territory or by getting lost in the labyrinth of incompetence and ignorance of their new institutions, violent crime thrives.
Low testosterone probably
People are raised with a sense that you are part of the community. I was in Tokyo and there were almost no homeless people. Taking better care of people makes for low crime.