Morality, Self-control, and Perception of the Police Among Chinese Inmates

Abstract

This study contributes to the scholarship on perception of the police by testing a theoretical interaction between morality and self-control, expanding the notion of morality to include both proscriptive and prescriptive morality, and investigating institutionalized populations. Survey data from a rare, large sample of inmates from three Chinese prisons indicate that the prisoners hold strikingly negative sentiments toward the police. While self-control does not affect inmates’ perception of the police after controlling for morality variables, both proscriptive and prescriptive morality are positively related to inmates’ attitudes toward the police. Furthermore, the positive effect of prescriptive morality on inmates’ perceptions of the police increases as the level of self-control elevates. Proscriptive morality and self-control, meanwhile, do not interplay in shaping such perceptions. Findings of the study have meaningful implications for using criminological theories to explain justice perceptions.