That begs the question, how many slipped through the legal safety net and met a grisly end?
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Can you provide your source for the claim how many cleared cases of violent crimes donât make it to trial?
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I suspect more than 203.
I have seen a horse being shot
In Japan, unlike in some other democracies, arrests require permission of judges except for cases such as arresting someone while committing a crime. Only significant cases with sufficient evidence are subject to indictment, since becoming a party to a criminal trial imposes a burden on a suspect; Japanâs indictment ratio is only 37%ââ99.3%â is the percentage of convictions divided by the number of indictments, not the criminals. As such, the conviction rate is high.
A general indictment rate of 37% isnât too much of a surprise given that it inludes stuff like petty theft. So, thanks but thatâs not what Iâm asking for or talking about.
I explicitly speak of violent crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnapping) a group of crimes where the public interest in locking the baddies up behind bars is much higher and thus the consequences of the indictment on the suspectâs life are far less relevant.
Without searching for hours on this:
The way the JP legal system works is, they pursue only very clear cases. Thatâs the reason for the high conviction rate, not because the rule of law is not present or they rather convict than not. The ratio of cases that donât even get prosecuted by the state attorney is like 5x higher than in Switzerland.
We have a very different approach, since in our culture, the impact a pure prosecution has (given you donât go to prison) is almost non existent, unless you get media coverage. This is not the same in Japan. âLosing faceâ is almost worse than any prison sentence you could get - together with a generally high honor and trust in their society, they landed at the approach they have now.
I have a few practical examples of this myself: In Japan, if thereâs a bar fight, this almost never gets prosecuted. I witnessed many, the police just sends the people home. In Switzerland theyâd get a report and if fists flew, likely follow up on this.
You may choose to not believe this, to which I can only suggest to go to Japan and experience their culture and âway of thinkingâ by talking to natives.
Anyhow thereâs ample precedent for current events. For example one of the hangmen at Nuremberg trials forged his certifications and was particularly unskilled and negligent. Apparently although records mentioned that he caused what is described as âexcessive suffering in Nazi criminalsâ he was never reprimanded or delivered of duties.
True story here.
One of my uncles, no idea how, why or of what colour of relationship was Harry Allen, Britains last hangman.
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There is a good film on the life of Albert Pierrepoint, one of Englandâs most famous hangmen. It has numerous factual errors (timeline, etc) but is worth to see once.
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I have no idea where you get that 5x from. Keep in mind that e.g. petty theft generally doesnât get reported by shops because the potential fine isnât worth the shopâs time and effort.
Thatâs why I want to focus on violent crimes, to avoid cultural differences in how stuff gets treated. I assume you wonât find too many cases of violent crime that wonât get prosecuted in JP either.