The Statistics That Are Given
https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReports.aspx?cid=2, reports from OSAC. Not from the Chinese. All updated in 2017. Consists of major cities.
Sources: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong (2007a); Hong Kong Police Force (2009a).
Found in Broadhurst, Roderic, et al. “Crime and Its Control in China.” Business and the Risk of Crime in China, vol. 3, ANU Press, 2011, pp. 43–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24h93t.9.
The Law In Communist China
Almost no civilian can have the certificate
Was Crime Rate Always Low in China?
Major cities like Hong Kong have had to adopt different crime-tackling philosophies as China has adapted to extreme social and political changes over the last thirty years (Broadhurst et al. 43). Most professors and experts would agree crime rate and china has always been relatively low, although economic and political change could trigger a crime rate increase. China’s crime wasn’t always observed as just sparse mishaps with the law. In Fact, in some periods of Chinese political history, their crime rate rose unproportionately: a prime example of this being in the 1980s (Bakken; Messner et al.).
Due to political and economic factors such as recessions or government intervention, China has experienced waves of mysterious crime that have plagued their major cities for the past fifty years (Broadhurst et al. 43). One instance includes China’s participation in industrialization after World War II. While the implications of immigrants could have boosted the Chinese economy, urban workers despised having to deal with the constant flow of migrants onto their land. Growing tensions between the people and dissatisfaction in the government led to riots in 1966 and 1967, which the Chinese government interpreted as a working conditions and housing problem. Within a few years the Chinese government began regulating working conditions (much like the United States, China just happened to be late hopping on that train) and funding public housing for the constantly growing population from the mentioned immigrants. Despite the government’s efforts, crime continued to increase and official statistics of police recorded crime were astonishingly high in the early 1970’s. According to “Business and the Risk of Crime in China (2011)”, crime rate was heavily concerning the the government from 1974, when the crime rate was 1294 per 100,000 people, until 1995, when crime rate was 1493 per 100,000 people. “Business and the Risk of Crime in China (2011)” also explains the fall of recorded crime on page 43, “From the mid-1990s, crime rates started to decrease. For example, the rate of homicide stood at 0.79 per 100 000 population in 1961, which rose to 2.79 in 1972 and 2.4 in 1990. By 2005, it had fallen to 0.49—a lower level than in 1961”.
Gun and Drug Control:
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
“Problems of War and Strategy” Mao Tze Tong (November 6, 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224.
The Chinese society have a almost zero tolerance for the use of illegal addictive drugs. It is often the family or friends that alerted the police for compulsory rehabilitation. The rehabilitation facilities in China is a harsh environment little treatment was conducted. Even though, the situation did provide a environment with no access to illegal drugs. The local authority will do constant checkups on people released from rehabilitation centers, performed by plainclothes police. Once the drug test’s result proved positive, they were usually charged $440, and immediately sent back to the camp. An Interviewee that was in the camp for more than eight times said, “I am a former drug addict. I started using in 1990. I’ve tried to get clean and have been in compulsory labor camps more than eight times. I just cannot go back to a forced labor camp – [it is] a terrifying world where darkness knows no limits.” (Human Rights Watch, 2010)
The gun control in China is extremely strict. It is almost impossible for a private citizen to acquire licenses for a firearm. The law that is primarily upholding the law is the Firearms-Control Law, it took effect on October 1, 1996. The sentence given when violated this law is harsh as well. “Illegal possession of firearms is punishable by police supervision, criminal detention, or fixed-term imprisonment for up to seven years. Illegally manufacturing, trading, transporting, mailing, or storing five military guns, five gunpowder-propelled nonmilitary guns, ten other non-military guns, fifty military bullets, five hundred nonmilitary bullets, three hand grenades, or any explosive devices that can cause serious damage is punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years, life imprisonment, or death.” (Library of Congress)
Political History and Its Relation to Crime Rate
Many political and economic factors influence China’s crime levels. But their political and economic stance, such as: communist or imperialist, free market or socialist, nationalist or globalist, has led many leaders of China to a low-crime rate or high-crime rate, in turn determining the state of their regime and the Chinese society during that regime.
Secret societies have always been very prevalent in Chinese culture as underground operations, although often illegal, they are not heavily tracked and produce heavy revenue in black markets and trade networks every year. When communist rulers began totalitarianistic rule in 1949 under Mao, these operations and secret societies were suffocated by the governments constant intervention (Chen 78). Under the grips of less strict rulers after the Mao era, these secret societies have come back at an alarming rate due to more economic and social freedom (Chen 78). Due to the lack of the socio economic regulations and overwatch the government had forced down societies and gangs throats in previous years, crime rings, gangs, and black markets emerged in Chinese cities such as the Human and Shanxi provinces. These places were notorious for attacks and sieges by hundreds of gangsters on authorities and citizens, and the mobilization of thousands by these gangs began to become strangely common (Chen 78) . Some claim that they even infiltrated local governments and controlled roughly 1% of the GDP and much of the economy, simply referred to as a “Black Economy” (Zao 122).
From a cultural standpoint, because of the influences of Confucianism, crimes were one of the worst things one man can do in the Chinese society. There is a natural tendency for criminals to regret and be ashamed for what they have done. Suicide is a prevalent theme in Chinese crime. People take crimes as serious offenses to the society in China. A crime committed in the past would ruin a career of a actor when later discovered, as relatives and fans would shame their dishonorable act. Because of the Opium Wars, which led to some “unequal treaties” being signed into place. (Bryant 131)
After continued generations tossle with ideas of honor and integrity in their family name, a recurring expectation has been prevalent in Chinese culture: bring honor to the family name. Despite this, as each new generation sprouts in China, their culture is abducted by new technology and foreign influence. Many people will argue, however, that the key principles of the Chinese ancestors stayed throughout a changing cultivation. According to one of the first and most notably known American churchmen who experienced Chinese culture, Arthur Henderson Smith, who writes in “Chinese Characteristics” (a very popular missionary manual for China), “China can never be reformed from within. In order to reform China, the springs of character must be reached and purified.” This idea brought about the rhetoric that the Chinese way of life induced possible crime, and the Chinese had a flawed culture. Christian missionaries began visiting China to convert the Chinese confuscists and their culture to a practical Christian establishment in the late 1800’s (Bradley 39). This wave of “Westernization” of culture influenced the Chinese in unexpected waves, possibly affecting the crime rate. American influence in economy and trade may have brought crime into the Chinese culture (Bradley 11).
The Chinese Government’s Possible Interference with Statistics
Citations:
- Broadhurst, Roderic, et al. “Crime and Its Control in China.” Business and the Risk of Crime in China, vol. 3, ANU Press, 2011, pp. 43–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24h93t.9
- Chen, An. “Secret Societies and Organized Crime in Contemporary China.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, 2005, pp. 77–107. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3876507.
- Yen, Ching-Yueh. “Crime in Relation to Social Change in China.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 40, no. 3, 1934, pp. 298–308. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2768262..
- Avery, Bryant. “The Journal of Asian Studies.” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 36, no. 1, 1976, pp. 131–132. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2053856.
- “China: Drug ‘Rehabilitation’ Centers Deny Treatment, Allow Forced Labor.” Human Rights Watch, 17 Apr. 2015, www.hrw.org/news/2010/01/06/china-drug-rehabilitation-centers-deny-treatment-allow-forced-labor
- Barge Bakken, The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity in China (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
- https://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/china.php Library of Congress
- Zhu Zao, ‘Heishehui yu gongchandang fenting kangli’ (Secret societies confr the communist party). Frontline, 122 March 2001
- Zhang, Laney. “Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: China.” Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: China | Law Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/china.php.