| In Japan the criminal justice system has been administered in a closed and separated space from persons concerned (especially victims) other than criminals and criminal justice agencies under the name of human rights of criminals and protections of their privacies. With an increasing awareness of human rights on the site of victims, such a problematic situation has begun to be brought into question. It is necessary for us to get sufficient information about crime, punishment and criminal justice because we live in democratic countries. According to my research, however, our present situation of disclosure in Japan is so poor that only minimum information is fragmentarily and partially disclosed based on the needs of each criminal justice system (police, public prosecutors office, court, prison, etc.). Disclosures should be met demands of whole persons concerned (criminals, victims and their families, criminal justice agencies, people general, mass-media, etc.). Moreover we need a wider awareness of the issues involved to get a correct understanding of the meaning of information control: why do criminal justices control information, what are their aims, how do information controls function, how can we trace their histories, etc.. I would like to call this kind of science "informationology of crime and punishment". |
Updated 05/20/2006