Asian Criminology - Concept and Development

Abstract

Criminology originated in the West, has grown primarily in the West, particularly in the United States, and has achieved tremendous success. However, theories and policy initiatives are mostly proposed and developed in Western contexts. Research in comparative criminology shows that crime patterns and justice policy and practice vary from country to country, to such an extent that the dominant theories often do not work very well in non-Western countries. A critical challenge for criminology is to resolve the tension between the universality of theories, which is a basic assumption of sciences, and the cultural variations that are commonly observed across countries and contexts.