Fatal child abuse in Japan: Does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?

dc.contributor.authorNambu, S., Nasu, A., Nishimura, S., Nishimura, A., & Fujiwara, S.
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-26T19:21:12Z
dc.date.available2014-08-26T19:21:12Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractIt has been pointed out in Japan that criminal punishment in domestic homicide cases, especially in fatal child abuse cases, tends to be more lenient than in public homicide cases that occur outside the home. In recent news accounts of fatal child abuse cases, however, the media has reported that court-imposed sentences have tended to be stricter every year. Methods: Using the online databases of three major Japanese newspapers, we collected articles about fatal child abuse cases that had been published from January 2008 to December 2009. We analyzed these articles to determine, whether a tendency towards tougher penalties, as was put forward by the media, actually exists at present time in the criminal system in Japan. Results: We found 24 cases, out of which 20 involved only one offender and 4 involved two offenders. These 28 offenders comprised nine biological fathers, 11 biological mothers, and eight other male relatives of the child victims. We found that the sentences handed down by the court clearly tended to be more lenient for female offenders.en_US
dc.identifier.citationNambu, S., Nasu, A., Nishimura, S., Nishimura, A., & Fujiwara, S. (2011). Fatal child abuse in Japan: Does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?. Journal of injury and violence research, 3(2), 74-79.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134931/pdf/jivr-03-74.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/1690
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherJournal of injury and violence researchen_US
dc.subjectJapanen_US
dc.subjectInternational Resourcesen_US
dc.subjectchild fatalityen_US
dc.subjectpunishmenten_US
dc.subjectchild abuseen_US
dc.subjectlawen_US
dc.subjectsocial expectationsen_US
dc.titleFatal child abuse in Japan: Does a trend exist toward tougher sentencing?en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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