On the Road to the Rule of Law: Crime, Crime Control, and Public Opinion in China

Abstract

Since 1978, the Chinese reform policy has brought fast economic developments and social change but also considerably higher crime levels. China's rapid modernization has resulted in a situation of increased opportunities and Durkheimian anomie. The Chinese government responds to the worsening crime situation with punitive criminal sanctions, especially under the 'strike hard' policy. However, a punitive crime control ideology and repressive criminal norms are neither effective in stopping the crime wave nor in compliance with the aim to establish the rule of law. After examining the negative effects the strike hard policy has brought to the Chinese criminal justice, we present findings from a recent web survey among Chinese students in Germany (N=ca. 900). We use these data to explore the punitive attitudes, esp. towards the death penalty, among the Chinese young elite.

Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Citizens in China

“…The drastic increase in social stratification and rich-poor polarization in modern China dissolved the previous solitary coalitions between citizens and police in Mao's time. A massive influx of peasants into coastal cities as migrant workers, who became primary targets of law enforcement, were accompanied by an explosion of crime (Cao, 2007;Dutton &Tianfu, 1993;Qi & Oberwittler, 2009;Wang & Wong, 2012;Wong, 2002;Xu, 2009). The polarization of the have and the have-nots in the society and the widespread abuse of power and corruption in domestic governance have triggered citizens' ever stronger resentment and resistance against local officials, causing successive violent confrontations and anger-venting mass incidents (Fewsmith, 2008;Liu, 1990;Rowen, 2007).…”

Predictors of Death Penalty Views in China: An Empirical Comparison Between College Students and Citizens

“…Besides historical and legal investigations of the death penalty in China (see Liang, 2015, and Lu & Miethe, 2007 for reviews), scholars have also conducted empirical studies on death penalty views (see Jiang, 2015 for a review). These studies have examined a number of reasons to support or oppose capital punishment, such as deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, rehabilitation (Jiang, Lambert, & Nathan, 2009; Jiang et al, 2010; Jiang & Wang, 2008), wrongful conviction/execution (Jiang et al, 2009; Jiang et al, 2010; Jiang & Wang, 2008), crime severity, crime prevalence, fear of crime (Jiang et al, 2009; Jiang et al, 2010; Jiang & Wang, 2008; Liang, Lu, Miethe, & Zhang, 2006; Qi & Oberwittler, 2009; Wu, Sun, & Wu, 2011), barbarity (Jiang et al, 2010), confidence in government (Jiang & Wang, 2008), and victimization (Liang et al, 2006; Wu et al, 2011).…”

“…There have been only four surveys of the attitudes toward capital punishment for specific offenses, and most of these studies were before the change in the number of death-eligible crimes. Three of the studies (Jia, 2005; Kuang et al, 2010; Oberwittler & Qi, 2009) are descriptive, while the fourth used regression analysis (Qi & Oberwittler, 2009). Second, there are six studies that used multivariate analyses of predictors of death penalty views in China, and only three studies (Jiang et al, 2009; Jiang, Lambert, & Wang, 2007; Jiang & Wang, 2008) included three or four of these variables: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, rehabilitation.…”

Political-Economic Coalition among Entrepreneurs, Professionals, and Cadres in Guangdong, China

“…Second, the middle tier is fond of social comparison to rationalize its conspicuous consumption and classy living. The basis of such practices rest on inequality and associated risks escalating in China (Qi and Oberwittler 2009; Zhang and Mo 2005). The inequality and risks in turn originate from marketization to make people competitive and aggressive (Boland 2007).…”