Introduction
Control of criminal behavior, proper analysis of crimes, and abilities to comprehend society’s demands and incitements to crimes are considered the major issues in criminology. It is inhere to people to commit crimes, become arrested and judged, and be able to response for own actions, ideas, and outcomes. Western culture is the one that may become influential for any race, for any nation, and for any person in committing crimes. The desire to earn more, the necessity to eat and have apartments to live, and finally, the wish to meet own interests, demands, and needs – all this may serve as a possible ground for making crimes, killing people, sexual offences, rape, and other poverty crimes. Asian migration to Unites States and some European countries leads to changes in populations, abilities to get education for people of different races, conditions under which incomes may be equal for each citizen. Organized crimes may happened on absolutely different grounds, and one of them is social discontent and the desire to have more, and Asians have all chances to represent how crimes are started, developed, and finished. It is necessary to have time and abilities to analyze crimes, and in spite of the fact that Asian crime is not as frequent as the crimes of white or black people, the abilities, which are opened for Asians, provide them with a chance to change their rates. This is why it is crucially important to control situation, to remind people about the essence of crime, its causes, and outcomes, and present more or less clear examples, which help to explain the bases of criminology. Asian crime is one of the concepts that are hard to investigate because of racial prejudice, mistrust, and suspicions, which are directed to police, government, and citizens; many Asian people can hardly comprehend that their activities are illegal and they commit crimes, which are prosecuted.
Main Body
Asians and their place on global arena
The place of Asian crime in the world criminology. Asian crime plays a crucial role on global arena, as it adds to the whole picture of criminology in general. The significant feature of Asian crime is that the crimes, which are committed by Asians are traditionally organized, that is prostitution, gambling, violence, or extortion, while American criminology world is focused more on transactional crimes. Referencing to the United Nations’ Center for International Crime Prevention, the organized crime group is defined as “a structured group of three or more persons existing for a period of time acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences… in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit” (in Finckenauer & Chin, 2006, p.22). Having considered the crimes and the crime organizations in such countries as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia, it was concluded that the leading organized crimes in those regions are penetration in the legitimate business, drug production and trafficking, the nexus between organized crime and politics and official corruption, human smuggling and trafficking in women and children. All mentioned problems are significant and both American and Asian authorities consider them as the first consideration in the question of decision the problems, which exist in Asia (Finckenauer & Chin, 2006).
Asian population rates in the society in the comparison with other races. The place of Asian criminology on the global arena may never be analyzed till the end without the consideration of statistical data of Asian society in general from different points of view. Taking the census data by race from 2008, it may be summarized that white race consists of 79,8% of one race and 81,27% are the white race in the combination with other races. Taking black race, the data will be as follows, 12,85% are black race and 13,53% are black people in the combination with other races. Asian race alone consists of 4,46%, and 4,96 are Asian people in combination with one or more other races. Moreover, the number of Asian population in different states of the USA increases from year to year. Looking on the current situation, it may be pointed that California is the place, where the number of Asian population is on the highest level. Taking Hawaii, the rate of Asian population there is highest than native one, 55%. Furthermore, the rate of Asian population in Texas and New York states suffered the highest numerical increase from 2006 to 2007. In addition, 2,9% – is a percentage growth of the Asian population between 2006 and 2007, the highest of any race group during that time period. So, it may be concluded that the number of Asian people in the world increases and the rate of that increase is high. The Asian race is the smallest one for now, and it is impossible for them to be on the first place in the criminal world.
The level of education is one of the main activities of the level of the society from the international perspective. The higher level of education, the higher cultural level of people in the society, and thinking logically, the lower the level of crime should be in such society. Analyzing the level of educated people of white race, black and Asian one, the following conclusions may be provided. The percentage of single race Asians of 25 and older, who received the bachelor’s degree, is 29.8%, and those, who got master’s degree, are 12,4%. Taking the white race population from 25 and older, those, who received bachelor degree, combine 18,1%, while those who received master’s degree, is 6,7%. The lowest rate may be observed in black race statistics, as people under 25, who received bachelor’s degree, are 12,2%, and the master’s degree was received by 4,1% of black population. The current data is collected from 2008. Having analyzed the data, it may be concluded that the level of education is the highest in Asian countries, and the crimes are less, but prejudices, which exist in the world and racial inequality continue to consider Asian nation as one of the most criminal one.
Income level from the perspective of poverty level of different races in the society. Education in the society is closely connected with the income rate of people. The level of income of different nations may be considered through the rate of poverty in different racial communities in the world. According to some data, the poorest people in the society are black race, and this activity increased on 0,2% in 2008 in reference to 2007. After black people Hispanic race comes, whose level of poverty in 2007 was 21,5% and in 2008 became 23,2. White and Asian race is almost on the same level, in 2007 the activities were about 10%, and in 2008 they increased till 11%. The level of education and the level of poverty prove that the criminology of Asian people is on the lower level than in other countries.
Having considered the mentioned data and provided the summary of the investigation, Woo Moo Hurh and Kwang Chung Kim (1989) concluded that the level of Asian achievement is equal to that of whites, but Asians pay a higher price than whites; whites and Asians are equal in the price paid, but Asians achieve less than whites; Asians achieve a higher level of status, but Asians pay disproportionately a higher price than whites, and Asians achieve less than whites, but Asians pay higher a price than whites (Hurh & Kim, 1989, p.520)
So, the theme of racial discrimination or inequality plays the crucial role in the conclusions, which are provided. In spite of the fact that Asian people are more educated, that they have lower level of poverty in their racial community, Asians are still considered as the lower class in the society. The main reason for such injustice is the disbalance between what is got by Asian people and what they pay for it. In addition, Asian people will be considered as the race with the highest level of criminology till the world community will consider them lower than other nationalities in the world.
Globalization, American and Asian Criminology
Globalization and its effects on human lives, future, and criminology. Globalization is probably one of the inevitable processes that touch many spheres of life, for example, religion, society, economy, business, education, or criminology today. As a rule, globalization is influenced by the combination of some political, sociocultural, technological, and economic factors; and in spite of such close connection to different spheres, globalizations may easily conflict with each of them. In order to meet the conditions of globalizations, achieve success, and earn enough for living, the vast majority of people prefer to migrate and change their locations. Challenges, which people face on the cultural field, has a considerable influence on people’s ways of life, ideas of how to earn money, opportunities to demonstrate own abilities, and even steps of how to develop communications. It is also necessary to admit that cultural challenges affect criminology and lead to the increasing of crime rates. Western culture and the peculiarities, which make this very culture remarkable and influential, continues its spreading over the whole world. The investigations by Susanne Karstedt (2001) show that Western cultural impact is still considerable for Asian population and some of Asian forms of control and nature of crimes are under the influence of European, American, and even Australian theories. Asian crimes and misunderstandings, which happen between citizens and law, develop day by day because of the concept of globalization and migration. New experiences, new conditions, and new people with their own demand create strong grounds for problems on the field of criminology. The idea of novelty can be hardly accepted by each citizen in the same necessary way, this is why people are not actually aware of what may be wrong and lead to negative outcomes, arrests, and trials, and what may be good and legal according to the inherent to the certain place law.
In fact, globalization may be considered as both positive and negative issue. On the one hand, people get a chance to use technological progress and make their lives more interesting and easier. Communication may happen on different levels between people, sharing of information becomes faster and more productive, and desirable results may be achieved quicker. On the other hand, people lack for time and space to analyze the outcomes and conditions of globalization can cannot grasp why this or that change happens and why their actions become illegal and wrong under new conditions. Taking into consideration this fact, it is possible to realize that Asian people have to be ready to accept globalization and technological progress and, at the same time, have to respect and comprehend Western culture that has such an effect on Asian life.
American perspective of crimes influences Asian perception of criminology, control, and laws. Nowadays, spreading of Americans all over the world happens sequentially, and today. California is considered to be the state with the highest rates of Asian population. Asians come to America in order to improve own lives and develop their skills, create business, or simply make their dreams come true. America is the major source of Western impact on Asian people that “ignores the rapid modernization of South East Asian societies and Japan during the downward changes of their crime rates” (Karstedt, 2001, p. 287). The problems of racial discrimination, the desire to elevate one nation and decrease the significance of another nations, and the habit to struggle against some kind of inequality – all this is inherent to people, and the American nation is not an exception. Nowadays, the United States of America is one of the rich and successfully developed countries in the whole world with its own traditions, preferences, and interests; and Asians, as a separate race, faces certain challenges to prove their worth and their rights as the whites already have. This desire to prove something and to demonstrate own success make Asians commit crimes, break laws, and be under a threat of numerous arrests. American perspective on the place of Asians becomes more and more suppressive: Chinese Exclusion Act, fights with civic movements, inability of Asian people to work and earn money on the same level as American people can do it, and other obstacles, which deprive Asians of the opportunities to have the same chance for self-realization as white Americans have. In spite of such unfair inequalities in the spheres of education, politics, science, and criminology, Asians are still eager to demonstrate how their knowledge and abilities may be helpful to other people and to this world. American perspective of the analysis of Asian crimes is all about race disparity and minorities’ desire to have more than they already have and to be able to do more than they try to do every day.
Asian crimes and arrests take place because the vast majority of people cannot realize how serious and illegal their actions can be. Development of drug industry, presence of illegal workers, and spreading of sexual workers – all this creates a powerful base for Asian crime development. The report of Chin and Finckenauer (2004) helps to recognize how serious the picture of Asian crimes actually is. First, it was observed that transformation of Asian women from China to other countries is one of the most successful and beneficial businesses for Asians. Weak and beautiful Asian women find it very captivating and easy to earn money by selling own bodies and using their sexuality as the main source of incomes. Some women cannot even comprehend that they commit crimes: all they want to know that their actions cost some money and they have a considerable financial support.
The production of heroin is another activity that brings money and satisfaction to many Asians around the whole world. Thailand and China are regarded as the most popular contributors of qualified heroine and other types of drugs, which are so popular among people of different nations. Amphetamine and methamphetamine are produced by the Asians mostly in Taiwan; and their producers have access to many other countries (America, England, France, Germany, and Canada), where the use of these drugs is sometimes legal, and even it is forbidden, people like to break laws.
Asians crimes are also closely connected to illegal work and preference to use undocumented employees. Asian undocumented workers are a serious point in Asia, United States, and some European countries. Employers try to use any possible means to pay small taxes and earn more money on the work of other people. Some Asians have purposes to earn for more or less comfortable living, eating, and dressing. Some workers can present services for food only or for places of temporary living. This is why people do not appreciate such concepts like moral values, human rights, and humanities, and put money and financial prosperity on the first place. Due to such preferences and money significance, people are blind while committing crimes. And Asian arrests because of breaking numerous laws become more frequent, more unreasonable, and more dangerous. Even if statistics shows that Asians’ rates are lower than of the rate of white and black people, the presence of crimes and arrests is noticeable and plays an important role in general development of society, proper communication, and clear identification of purposes.
Cultural gap and its effect on Asian crime
Transfer of cultures: the effect on crimes. Immigration is one of the main factors, which influences the crime world. The increase of international traveling, the quick exchange of information and other facilities lead to the fact that people are eager to exchange the experience between each other in different spheres of their life and the crime world is no an exception. Having visiting different countries and communicating with different crime authorities in different nations, the cross-cultural exchange occurs and it is impossible for now to say that this or that type of crime is popular in this very country and is not widespread in the other. Of course, it is impossible to avoid the opportunities to provide this or that type of crime in reference to cultural significances, but still the drugs are sold all over the world, the women and children slavery is distributed over the glob and a great deal of other examples may be offered, but at the same time some countries are considered to be dominant in this or that sphere. Susanne Karstedt (2001) underlines two significant features of the cross-cultural transfer, processes of cultural transfer and the stability of cultural patterns in immigrant communities that are related to crime means that migrants bring their own culture to the foreign country and in the situation of immigration, specific cultural patterns might be strengthened even if they are in contrast to the surrounding culture. So, the work of crime is not specified now, the Asian crimes schemes are used worldwide, while in Asian countries criminal organizations use the schemes and techniques, which were created in America or Europe. Moreover, the mutual exchange of both information and criminal products is provided. The examples of criminal products may serve drugs and slavery in the modern world.
Changes Asian people are faced in the reference to crimes. Asian people have always been considered as the most criminal nation, but in fact the level of education and the low level of poverty show different activities. Moreover, looking on the historical perspective, the Asian crime world has undergone the significant changes. Some time ago, the American borders were closed for Chinese people just because their reputation was poor in the relation to criminal activities. Further, the negative relation was also transferred to Japanese, Korean and Filipino. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had allowed for Asian people to visit America, that says about the change of image about Asians in general. The prejudiced attitude to Asian people was changed for more objective one. Professionalization and upward social mobility of young college-educated Chinese and Japanese Americans show that Asian people began to be preserved as separate personalities, paying attention to the personal achievements and traits and consider all according to the behavior of one. But still, due to some prejudices of Asian people to be criminally directed, native-born Asian males earn less than white males under the equivalent condition of investment and in spite of their high education, Asian Americans are repeatedly found to have experienced a great deal of difficulty in getting jobs commensurate with their education (Hurh & Kim, 1989). So, Asian people are considered to be criminal race due to some prejudices, which still remain in the world, but with the official refusal from such prejudices the consideration of Asians as less criminated had not occur.
Efforts to solve cultural gap between Asians and other races. The crime is combated in every country separately, but at the same time there are some international organizations, which are aimed to combat with the crimes all over the world, as well as the communities, which provide the combat with criminal world in some special regions. Taking CACS (The Center for Asian Crime Studies), this center deals with the crimes, which exist in the Asian community, and cope with the criminal organizations, which have Asian origin. The mission of this organization is to organize education and training of professionals, who will consider the criminal world, connected with Asian race. The aim of the center is to reduce the Asian criminology in the world and to create positive consideration of Asian nation in the world. The other organization, which deals with the Asian criminal world, is the Asian Task Force, which directs its efforts on the reduction of domestic violence in the reference to Asian people or committed by Asian people. The mentioned organization primarily serves Asian families and individuals in Boston who suffer from or are at risk of suffering from domestic violence. Their clients include a range of Asian ethnic populations. In addition, there are a lot of other organizations which try not only to reduce the crime rates in the world, but also to show that Asian race is the same as others, and in some characteristics may even be better then others, but the historically provided image of the criminal Asian nation does not allow for Asian people to lead normal life and to avoid the prejudice in their reference. The national government of Asian countries and some other governments in the modern world have understood that it is the time to be free from prejudices and try to judge people according to their real behavior, but not coming out of social opinion about the nation as the whole.
Conclusion
The analysis of Asian crime turns out to be helpful in several perspectives. First, Asians are the group of people with high rates of education, this is why they are open to different possibilities. However, such availability to numerous services and possibilities leads to people’s inability to control own behavior and ability to break the law. If Asians migrate to different countries, they face cultural gaps, which deprive them of the opportunities to take into consideration own interests and skills. This is why to show their abilities and to achieve the necessary goals, Asians commit crimes and undergo arrests. People also have to remember about such issue like responsibility, and if they break law or harm other people, they should be responsible for their actions and think about improvement of their behavior.
Racial inequality should not be the major factor the definition of Asian crime. Usually, the ground for crime are similar to all people, the point is that some groups of people are able to evaluate own behavior and predict negative outcomes to improve situation, and some people cannot even learn on their own mistakes and continue breaking law in order to satisfy personal needs and interests.
Reference List
Finckenauer, J. O. & Chin, K. (2006). Asian Transnational Organized Crime and its Impact on the United States: Developing a Transnational Crime research Agenda. Trends in Organized Crime, 10(2), 18-107.
Hurh, W. M. & Kim, K. C. (1989). The ‘success’ image of Asian Americans: its validity, and its practical and theoretical implications. Ethic and Racial Studies, 12(4), 512-538.
Karstedt, S. (2001). Comparing cultures, comparing crime: Challenges, prospects and problems fro global criminology. Crime Law and Social Change, 36(3), 285-308.