Soft On Crime: An ANZSOC Mascot Project

Carolyn McKay, Murray Lee, and ANZSOC member collaborators
October 29, 2025

In Summary

In Japan, “yuru-chara” mascots, including those used by prisons like Katakurri-chan, are designed to soften institutional images and boost public engagement.
Inspired by this trend, ANZSOC 2024 participants created a gender-neutral criminology mascot, “Soft on Crime,” to spark critical reflection on incarceration and the role of criminologists.
Keep an eye out… you might even see “Soft on Crime” make an appearance as the unofficial mascot of #ANZSOC2025 in Brisbane!

Mascots, known as “yuru-chara” or “yuru-kyara” are common in Japan and used by organisations, businesses and corporations to represent regions or promote products. A visit to Japan will inevitably bring you into contact with a mascot of some kind. Even the justice system is not immune from the use of mascots. In particular, prisons deploy them to, well, soften their image. There is a range of prison mascots in Japan and, perhaps the most prominent Japanese prison mascot is Katakurri-chan, created by Asahikawa Prison in 2013 in order to soften its image. The character, which has both male and female versions and wears a warden’s uniform, is a humanoid figure with a large purple flower for hair, ‘inspired by the dogtooth violet that blooms near the prison’. The Prison, located on the island of Hokkaido, actually has a dark past, and human rights campaigners point to harsh conditions in Japanese prisons, noting Japan still has the death penalty. However, the launch of the mascot in 2013 attracted some 1,800 visitors to a weekend fair at Asahikawa Prison, largely to meet the mascot. It seems the soft approach to PR works and proves popular.

At ANZSOC 2024, we ran an arts-based creative workshop session with the aim of producing an ANZSOC Criminology Mascot. In line with the approach in Japan, and ironically deploying a term often used to delegitimise social justice focused approaches to crime and criminalisation, we decided to name our gender neutral mascot, ‘Soft on Crime’. We invited colleagues attending our session and the conference more broadly to write, paste or sew on comments around themes of incarceration, criminalisation, and justice. We provided open prompts, craft materials, and also a soundtrack of prison soundscapes to facilitate the project. After some tidying up, months of sewing and stuffing, and further peer feedback, we present ‘Soft on Crime’. It’s a mascot literally labelled by criminologists with terms related to criminology, criminalisation and justice, aimed at provoking reflection on the justice system, but also on our roles as criminologists. It serves as a critical reminder that while some public discourse might suggest otherwise, the justice system (and prisons in particular) is rarely ‘soft on crime’ or offenders, and often serves to make crime problems worse.