Book Review: Police Reform in China

• Author: Liqun Cao
• Date: 01 September 2013
• Published date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567712475296
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

police associations are not part of the institutional architecture described by Porter and Prenzler and

historicallyhave in some jurisdictions sometimesbeen part of the problem rather than part of the solu-

tion, they arepotentially of great importancein changing police cultureor perhaps (more accurately)in

mobilizing police culture to combat ethical misconduct and corruption.

I would like to make one final point concerning the role of ethical analysis and judgment in

relation to preventing, detecting, and deterring ethical misconduct and corruption in policing and,

for that matter, elsewhere. It is important to understand that what counts as ethical misconduct or

corruption in any setting—and, indeed, whether a given institutional response to misconduct or

corruption is reasonable—is itself often a matter for ethical analysis (appropriately integrated with

practitioner experience, empirical findings, legal input, etc.). This point should in my view be given

greater weight in Porter and Prenzler’s monograph and, for that matter, in public policy making in

relation to police integrity management more generally. Lawyers, in particular, tend to think in terms

of Black and White compliance or noncompliance with rules and processes. Accordingly, their pre-

scription is often a prescription for dealing with noncompliance and the prescription consists of more

rules and processes. Would that things were that simple. For example, whether or not police use of

force, deception, infringement of privacy, and the like in some given set of circumstances is neces-

sary, proportionate, reasonable, justifiable, efficacious, and so on, is not necessarily an easy matter

to settle, even in theory let alone in practice. The same point holds for responses to ethical miscon-

duct and corruption, such as the use of random integrity testing (as opposed to random drug or alco-

hol testing). Whether or not such a response is desirable, all things considered requires (empirically,

legally, practitioner, etc. informed) ethical analysis and, at the operational level (assuming random

integrity testing is introduced), ethical judgment on the part of practitioners.

Kam C. Wong

Police Reform in China New York, NY: CRC Press, 2012. xxiv, 388 pp. $129.95 (hardback). ISBN 978-1-4398-

1969-2

Reviewed by: Liqun Cao, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada

DOI: 10.1177/1057567712475296

The book is an interesting addition to a relatively small but growing collection of specialized trea-

tises on the police in China (see Bakken, 2005; Biddulph, 2007; Dutton, 1992, 2005; Kuiken, 1993;

Trevaskes, 2010; Wong, 2009). It fits perfectly well with the proclaimed theme of the series editor

Dilip K. Das to ‘‘foster better communication between researchers and practitioners’’ (Das, 2012,

p. xv). Indeed, one of the most commendable strengths of the book is its chronic documentation

of the reform efforts and the changes of police practice in China since 1979 without any professional

jargons. By the same token, the downside of such an approach is its lack of theory and devoid of the

nature of the police as a highly politicalized tool for its regime in China.

Wong based this book on his 10-year investigation of police reform in China. It is a follow-up to

his other book Policing in China: History and Reform (Wong, 2009), which offered an introduction

to the origin, history, culture, education, and reform of policing in China. This current volume is

divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 covers the history of the police reform from 1979 to the

present, and focuses on the defining issue of how to change the police organizational culture.

Chapter 2 lists the obstacles to understanding Chinese policing and Wong advocates the approach

of ‘‘cultural relativism’’—this phrase is my interpretation. In his own words, Wong states that, ‘‘we

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