Crime and Social Control in Asia and the Pacific: A Cross-border Study

As the center stage of the world in the twenty-first century, Asia and the Pacific provide a vast testing ground where Eastern civilizations meet with Western development, socialism with capitalism, and authoritarianism with democracy for possible confrontation, fusion, or both. This study examines crime and social control in the region. It first examines crime, concentrating upon crime resulting from social disorganization; crimes of opportunity; entrepreneurial crime; bureaucratic crime; the drug trade; human trafficking; organized crime; and crimes of terror. Professor Shaw then analyzes social control, focusing on change of ideologies; transfer of technologies; professionalization of control forces; modernization of control systems; cross-border cooperation; and international coordination. Most critically, this work explores changing dynamics between capitalism and socialism; Eastern civilizations and Western development; democratic forms of government and patriarchal leadership; citizen initiative and state authority; procedural fairness and control effectiveness; and their possible impacts on crime and social control in Asia and the Pacific.

Victor N. Shaw is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University-Northridge. Professor Shaw holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.