This important edited collection of articles by both Chinese and American scholars attempts to promote a more accurate and in-depth understanding of crime and social control in China, as it undergoes significant cultural, economic, and social change. The editors contend that as the economic system has been transformed, many other social institutions in China have also experienced unprecedented changes, including legal institutions and other organizations responsible for social control. The essays focus on crime in China and summarize the major structural changes in Chinese society and their effects on crime and justice over the last ten to fifteen years, offer an overview of Chinese perspectives on crime, examine socio-economic changes and their impact on social control, and discuss changes in adults' and children's courts and the new changes in Chinese policing in Chinese society. Organized into four parts, this work addresses the nature, extent and special features of crime and delinquency in China under conditions of social change. It also investigates the question of the social correlation of changing patterns of crime. The impact of social transition on the changes in the grassroots level of social control is also discussed. Chinese law and criminal justice, with particular focus on the courts, police, and crime prevention are mentioned as well. This unique collection of essays is a timely and significant contribution to the fields of comparative criminology, social control, Chinese studies, and legal studies.

Adopting a cross-cultural perspective, this book utilizes data collected from several large-scale surveys to assess the neighborhood social control system in a changing urban China. It conceptualizes this system through different types of neighborhood social control at private, parochial, semi-public, public, and market levels. The book highlights the importance of cross-cultural studies of neighborhood effects, and discusses several major issues in such studies along with prospects for future research.

This is the first scholarly book to explore the empowerment and the social service role of frontline police officers in the People’s Republic of China. It approaches the study of role strain and empowerment, informed by local empirical data and personal experience. Thematically organized and focusing on those issues of greatest concern to the public, such as the dual social control (informal and formal) mechanism, mass line policing, strike-hard campaigns, police professionalization and professional ethics, as well as the paramilitary-bureaucratic structure in the Chinese police organization, it provides a detailed discussion of these and other contemporary issues. The book offers a valuable resource for students and researchers in the area of comparative policing and comparative criminal justice, as well as police professionals and policy-makers.

This groundbreaking book examines the changing Chinese legal system since 1978. In addition to historical analyses of changes at the economic, political-legal, and social levels, Liang gives special attention to crime and punishment functions of the legal system, and the current judicial system based on field research, i.e., court observations in both Beijing and Chengdu. The court system has been in a process of systemization, both internally and externally, seeking more power and relative independence. However, traditional influences, such as preference of mediation (over litigation) and substantive justice (over procedural justice), and lack of respect (from the masses) and guaranteed power (from the political structure), still have major impacts on the building and operation of the judicial system. Liang also shrewdly places the Chinese legal and political reform within the global system. This book, which reshapes our understanding of the economic, political, and essentially legal changes in China within the global context, will be crucial reading for scholars of Asia, law, criminal justice, and sociology.

In China, the central government has the political will to control organized crime, which is seen as a national security threat. The crux of the problem is how to control local governments that have demonstrated lax enforcement without sufficient regulation from the provincial governments. The development of prostitution, underground gambling and narcotics production has become so serious that the central government has to rely on anti-crime campaigns to combat these "three evils". This book explores the specific role of government institutions and agencies, notably the police, in controlling organised and cross-border crime in Greater China. Drawing heavily on original empirical data, it compares the both the states of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, as well as city-states Hong Kong and Macao. This region has become increasingly economically integrated, and human interactions have been enhanced through improved trade relations, tourism, and increased individual freedom. The book argues that the regime capacity of crime control across Greater China has been expanded through regional and international police cooperation as well as anti-crime campaigns. It suggests that a strong central state in China is necessary to rein in the local states and to prevent the risk of deteriorating into a political-criminal nexus. Focusing on regime capacity in crime control, regime autonomy from crime groups, and regime legitimacy in the fight against organized crime, this thought-provoking book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics and criminology more broadly.

This book explores the theoretical and empirical dimensions of community crime prevention in China, examining in particular the role of social capital in a rapidly modernizing economic, social and political context. In doing so it provides a vivid picture of contemporary crime and crime control in China as well as analyzing the very particular Chinese approach to community crime prevention, looking at such social institutions as the household registration system, the neighbourhood committee, the work unit and the public security bureau. The particular focus of this book is on BLSCC − Building Little Safe and Civilized Communities − in the city of Shenshen which has been undergoing rapid change. The book looks at two contrasting communities within the city, looking at their different characteristics and the differing ways in which social capital operates in relation to crime and crime prevention. As well as shedding light on the hitherto largely hidden subject of crime prevention in China this book also makes an important contribution to wider debates about social capital and its potential, an invaluable study based on unique research.

Organized crime has been on the rise in the Greater China region since the People's Republic opened up its economy and society in the mid-1980s. Today, triads from Hong Kong, Macao, and even Taiwan are involved in businesses in Guangdong Province, and often recruit local Chinese for illegal activities such as extortion, kidnapping, assassinations, and smuggling of illegal aliens.This book provides a detailed and comprehensive study of how the state at the central and local levels has responded to the changing patterns and activities of cross-border crime in Greater China. It discusses the theoretical concept of organized crime; the transnational nature of organized crime in recent years; the significance of studying organized crime in Greater China; and the implications for the national security of other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.The author reviews the history of organized crime and secret societies, and addresses the legal complexities of dealing with criminal groups in the region. He covers such topics as money laundering, the financing of terrorist activities, and regional efforts in fighting terrorism.