David Johnson

Background

In my last semester as an undergraduate at Bethel College in Minnesota, I encountered Professor Paul Wiebe in a Sociology of Religion class. Dr. Wiebe was raised in south India, and his teaching helped me see how distinctive and problematic some features of American society are. As a result of his class, when an opportunity arose to teach English in Japan, I took it, hoping that a year abroad would further develop my comparative perspective. While in Japan, a stranger in a train station gave me a leaflet which raised concerns about police interrogations and wrongful convictions in Japanese criminal justice. My interests in criminal justice and Japan and sushi took off from there.

Education

• Advanced Research Fellow, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1997
• PhD, Jurisprudence and Social Policy, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, 1996
• MA, Sociology, University of Chicago, 1989
• BA, (Summa Cum Laude) in Mathematics, Minor in Sociology, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1983
• Certificate, Intensive Program in Advanced Japanese, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama, Japan, 1988

Courses

• SOC 218: Introduction to Social Problems
• SOC 333: Survey of Criminology
• SOC 336: Deviant Behavior and Social Control
• SOC 357: Sociology of Japan
• SOC 374: Law, Politics and Society
• SOC 431: Analysis in Criminology/Juvenile Delinquency
• SOC 432: Analysis in Corrections
• SOC 632: Criminal Justice System

Research

My teaching and research focus on criminal justice (police, prosecutors, and punishment, mainly in Japan and the US), comparative law and society, and the death penalty.