Introduction: Advancing Empirical Research on China’s Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice: Continuity and Expansion

• Author: Hongwei Zhang,Ling Ren
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1043986218769793
• Subject Matter: Editorial

https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986218769793

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2018, Vol. 34(2) 120 –127

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986218769793

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Editorial

Introduction: Advancing

Empirical Research on

China’s Juvenile Delinquency

and Juvenile Justice:

Continuity and Expansion

Educating the young is a permanent mandate for any civilization. Chinese society has

accumulated both high expectations and high anxieties in developing its youth

throughout the millennia. This has been a lasting theme manifested in Confucian

thoughts on cultivating correct behaviors from a young age (Cao & Cullen, 2001) as

well as in legal codes governing youth misbehavior in Chinese dynasties (Zhao, 2014).

In the modern era under both the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of

China, the basic concepts and practices of a Chinese juvenile justice system continued

to evolve with mixed Western and traditional Chinese influences. The result is a fluid

field of juvenile justice practices that will continue to challenge researchers and policy

makers in the foreseeable future. This introductory essay begins with a scan of the

existing research literature on the subject, followed by a succinct summary of each

study included in this special issue. We hope this special issue would demonstrate both

the necessity of and a vision for advancing empirical research on China’s juvenile

delinquency and justice responses.

Where Are We on Chinese Juvenile Justice Practices and

Research?

For much of the time prior to the 1980s, Chinese youthful offenders were handled

either by grassroots organizations such as neighborhood committees or by the police

using administrative rules with no judicial oversight (L. Zhang, 2008). The establish-

ment of Changning juvenile court in Shanghai in 1984 marked a symbolic first step

toward building a legalistic juvenile justice system nationwide in mainland China.

Since then, China has made great strides in the treatment of juvenile offenders under

the fundamental principle of “giving priority to education and supplementing it with

punishment.” The more recent legislative initiatives included abolishment of capital

punishment for juveniles, conditional nonprosecution, due process rights for juvenile

suspects, and sealing of juvenile criminal records (for more details, see Zhang & He in

this special issue).

Scholarship on Chinese juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice has also prolifer-

ated in recent years. A literature search using the key words “juvenile delinquency” or

“juvenile justice” from 1984 to the present in the China National Knowledge

769793CCJXXX10.1177/1043986218769793Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

editorial2018