Making sense of life without parole in China

Smith, T. C.; Su, Jiacan

doi:10.1177/1462474517739848

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The central resistance to populist pressure can also be seen in the SPP's recent decision to not lower the age of criminal responsibility, despite the public outcry online (Lin, P. 2019). The progressive abolition of the death penalty is another example, although the central authority introduced life imprisonment without parole to calm potential public discontent (Smith and Jiang, 2019). This finding may not be good news for the supporters of democratisation, but it offers some assurance to criminologists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Bottom-Up Reform of Sex Offender Registration in China: Carceral Feminism and Populist Authoritarianism

Chen

2020

Crime Law Soc Change

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In 2017, the Minhang District of Shanghai introduced sex offender registration. This reform attracted positive reactions on social media. Local governments in Jiangsu, Guangdong and Chongqing quickly followed the precedent. In 2019, the central government announced that it will establish national sex offender registries by 2022, although it limited the scope of registration to paedophiles. This study explores how this bottom-up reform unfolded and what implications it has in theory and practice. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of 2261 posts on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, this study reveals two major players in the current reform: the Chinese feminists who are pursuing a punitive agenda online (a phenomenon known as 'carceral feminism'), and the local governments that are eager to win the public's trust, although such trust is mainly reserved for the central authority in the Chinese political culture (a culture known as 'populist authoritarianism'). Drawing on the findings, this study pushes the discussion about Chinese penal policy beyond the dichotomy of 'penal professionalism' and 'penal populism'. It argues that while the influence of professionalism is evident in central-level policy making, local penal policies can be easily led by populist punitiveness. The latter deserves more academic attention. This study also takes a non-partisan approach to the feminist movements on Chinese social media. It reveals the class conflicts and regional inequality underlying the gender schism. The polarisation effect in online discussion is also highlighted, which alerts policy makers to the reliability of 'public opinion' online.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Bottom-Up Reform of Sex Offender Registration in China: Carceral Feminism and Populist Authoritarianism

Chen

2020

Crime Law Soc Change

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“…Life imprisonment is now authorized by statute in 183 countries; it is the most severe penalty in 149 of those nations and all international criminal courts (Van Zyl Smit & Appleton 2019). Countries that never before used life sentences have introduced them (Smith & Jiang 2019). The number of life-sentenced prisoners worldwide has nearly doubled since the millennium (Van Zyl Smit & Appleton 2019).…”

Section: Life Sentencing: Then and Nowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Sentences and Perpetual Confinement

Seeds

2021

Annu. Rev. Criminol.

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The past 40 years have been a time of great change in life sentencing, during which the use of life sentences has dramatically grown and the quality of life sentences has markedly hardened. The rise of life without parole in the United States is a particularly recognizable development, but life sentencing has increased worldwide, and the use of other forms of punishment that hold people in prison until death has also intensified. This article focuses on these transformations by examining several important areas in which thinking and scholarship on life sentencing have been altered and spurred by recent developments. The review concludes by pointing to gaps in the field of research and highlighting issues on which social scientific research on life sentencing has more to contribute going forward.

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“…7 Despite a lack of aggregated indicator data, recent estimates by both international and Chinese experts suggest that, while China remains the world's leading executioner state in absolute numbers, executions have dropped precipitously since 2007 (Amnesty International 2017; Dui Hua Foundation 2018). The estimated decline in executions accompanies a raft of qualitative changes to death penalty law and procedure, including reduction in the number of capital-eligible offenses, heightened due process in capital cases, increased legal representation for capital-eligible defendants, and expanded guiding jurisprudence on capital sentencing (Smith and Jiang 2019).…”

Section: The Study Background: Reform In Law and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Count Politics: Quantification, Secrecy, and Capital Punishment in China

Smith¹

2020

Law Soc. Inq.

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As quantification has become socially ubiquitous, the disclosure of numerical data emerges as a key feature of legal reform and global governance. Scholars document how seemingly value-neutral statistical indicators shape, and are shaped by, institutional interests. Although less attention has been paid to cases where states resist numerical disclosure, prohibitions on the disclosure of such indicators also produce social effects. This article extends scholarship on the governance effects of quantification to include secrecy by exploring the case of capital punishment data in China, which is reportedly the world’s leading executioner state. Amid a major death penalty reform effort, China steadfastly refuses international calls to publicly disclose relevant statistics. I analyze capital cases and draw on seventy-three interviews with legal insiders in China’s death penalty system to identify the impact of state efforts to conceal capital punishment indicators while undertaking reforms in three areas: transparency; legal representation; and criminal procedure. I show how tension between the disclosure and nondisclosure of death penalty numbers does not simply suppress data; it also shapes and becomes data, influencing both policy and action in the legal sphere in ways that are seemingly far removed from quantification.

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Making sense of life without parole in China

Cited by 8 publications

References 43 publications

Exploring the Bottom-Up Reform of Sex Offender Registration in China: Carceral Feminism and Populist Authoritarianism

Exploring the Bottom-Up Reform of Sex Offender Registration in China: Carceral Feminism and Populist Authoritarianism

Life Sentences and Perpetual Confinement

Body Count Politics: Quantification, Secrecy, and Capital Punishment in China

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