Asian Journal of Criminology最新文献

Existing research has examined the effect of parental migration and resulting caretaking arrangements on children’s well-being in rural China, including children’s exposure to abuse and neglect. However, to date, no research has examined the impact of parental migration on custodial interference—a type of parental abuse that has become increasingly prevalent in rural China. Using a sample of 426 middle-school students whose parents were divorced or remarried in Guizhou province, this paper delves into the relationship between parental migration and custodial interference in divorced households. Our bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that maternal migration and paternal care significantly increase the likelihood of custodial interference. The findings reveal the penalty of maternal migration and underscore the gendered labor division, which aligns with the dominant patriarchal values in rural China. Additionally, they shed light on the complex challenges faced by left-behind children in rural China and suggest that split households induced by parental migration may impede the child’s access to both parents, hindering their rights to familial contact, care, and intimacy development.

The (re)discovery of restorative justice (RJ) in Indigenous history assumes that this reputedly new justice initiative is actually “really not new.” Indigenous peoples’ philosophies and justice practices carry specific elements almost identical to RJ’s essentials. This article focuses on the Indigenous narrative of RJ, spotlighting De Gu mediation, a form of traditional justice practiced by ethnic Yi people in China. Drawing on empirical evidence obtained in Liangshan, a significant highland inhabited by Yi people, three cases are refined and demonstrated. They highlight that the hybridity of justice in Liangshan created spaces where De Gu justice and the Chinese state justice systems can work in mutually constitutive ways in which social justice, due process, and Indigenous cultures, to an extent, are manifest. This article not only contributes to RJ literature with its signpost to the Indigenous RJ in China, but it also extends the lens when viewing China of today.

This study examines potential relationships between police leadership styles and perceptions of policing issues in Kuwait. Police station leaders (n = 60) completed a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-6S) to assess their leadership styles—transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire. This accompanied a survey assessing their attitudes on prominent themes in policing, including cultural constructs unique to the Middle East—specifically wasta (favoritism). Linear models were used to identify demographic predictors of leadership styles and to explore potential links between leadership traits and perceptions on policing themes. The findings revealed significant relationships in both sets of analyses. Officers with college degrees strongly correlated with transformational leadership, while transactional traits showed only minimal significance; additionally, experience in the position was associated with higher levels of laissez-faire leadership. Further analysis showed leaders who adopted laissez-faire mentalities hold more favorable views on the use of overtime, whereas transactional leaders expressed more favorable opinions of the public yet were less inclined to acknowledge the negative influence wasta has on police work. This study addresses substantial gaps in the literature, offering valuable insights into the current state of police leadership in Kuwait. It is also the first to explore wasta in the policing and criminal justice context in the Middle East, providing discussion to the cultural dimensions influencing law enforcement in the Arab region. Future research should expand on these cultural dimensions, as well as examine the potential benefits of leadership assessment and its alignment with desirable organizational outcomes in policing.

Organizational justice refers to the view that the employing organization treats employees in a fair and just manner. There are different schools of thought regarding the number of dimensions that compose organizational justice, but the current study included four: informational, interactional, procedural, and distributive. Organizational trust refers the view that an employee has confidence in the representatives of the organization. The current study included supervisor and management trust, as they are the two major types of organizational trust. The authors propose a path model where informational and interactional justice are positive direct predictors of both procedural and distributive justice, and procedural justice is directly and positively related to distributive justice. In turn, procedural and distributive justice are directly and positively associated with supervisor and management trust. Ordinary least squares analysis of survey data from 322 staff at two Chinese prisons supported the path model, except that procedural justice did not predict supervisor trust. As this is a preliminary study, more research, including more focused research, is needed to determine how organizational justice is related to organizational trust among correctional staff in different nations.

Prison rape constitutes a severe human rights violation within correctional systems, with its true prevalence often obscured by underreporting. Rape-supportive attitudes among criminal justice (CJ) professionals exacerbate this issue, underscoring the need to address such beliefs early in the education of future CJ professionals—CJ majors—before they enter the field. This study examined prison rape myths among CJ majors in South Korea and the USA, two countries with distinct cultural and educational contexts. Analyzing survey data from CJ majors at four universities in each country, the study explored how demographics, education, and oppressive attitudes shape prison rape myths. Findings revealed both universal and culture-specific predictors of prison rape myths. In both countries, oppressive attitudes—particularly male and female rape myths and negative attitudes toward prisoners—were significant predictors. However, educational factors played a stronger role in South Korea, where mandatory, high-quality courses on oppressive attitudes were linked to lower levels of negative views toward prisoners. These results suggest that culturally tailored educational interventions may be more effective in challenging oppressive beliefs. This study emphasizes the value of a transnational approach to education to address rape-supportive attitudes and foster victim-centered practices among future CJ professionals.

Child maltreatment is a global public health concern. A high percentage of children working in rural informal sectors in Bangladesh experiences physical maltreatment. This area of study, however, remains understudied. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and risk factors of physical maltreatment of child laborers in rural Bangladesh. A total of 200 child laborers and parents were recruited in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, including the ICAST-CH and ICAST-P survey tools. Multivariable linear regression was performed using SPSS and STATA software to analyze data. Above 66% of child laborers experienced being hit, beaten, or spanked with a bare hand, followed by 53% being pushed, grabbed, or kicked sometimes in the past year. In addition, 35% of parents reported that their children had been hit on the head with a knuckle, and 30% reported their child had been hit on the buttock with an object once/twice in the past year. This study identified that the parents’ employment in service sectors (β = –0.87, p = 0.04), an increase in individual (β = –1.92, p = 0.02), and household income (β = –0.98, p = 0.02) significantly reduced the child laborers’ risk of experiencing physical maltreatment. Conversely, the rate of physical maltreatment increased with the extension of working hours (β = 0.52, p < 0.01). There is a need for extensive studies on the physical maltreatment of child laborers. The study suggests reformulations and adaptations to policy and the provision of social safety net programs in rural areas to prevent physical maltreatment of child laborers.

There is a growing recognition of the significance of comparative research in criminology. However, this field faces several persistent challenges that hinder its development. These challenges may limit the validity of comparative research findings and introduce potential biases. If not addressed appropriately, these challenges can impede the growth of comparative criminology and its contributions. These primary challenges include a predominance of Western-centric perspectives, the ambiguity arising from involving culture as an explanatory factor in quantitative studies, difficulties in conducting survey research across different countries, and inadequacies in the comparative units utilized. This paper seeks to comprehensively review these challenges in detail and explore the path for the advancement of future research in comparative criminology.

The introduction and operation of community corrections in China has been hailed as a justice mechanism that addresses criminogenic needs of offenders and advances their well-being. Despite the growing research on the operational significance of this emerging penal institution, few studies have been conducted from the perspective of offenders, the staple recipients of rehabilitation services. Much less research has also yet paid attention to the impact of the rehabilitative provision on offenders’ perceptions of justice. To bridge this gap, this study examines how offenders’ participation in rehabilitation and their interactions with social workers shape their sense-making about Chinese penality. Analysis of in-depth interviews with offenders reveals that rehabilitation by social workers revitalizes offenders’ self-identities, instills a sense of modernization in Chinese state capacity, and defuses long-standing tensions between offenders and the state. Notably, this salutary effect of rehabilitation on offenders’ perceptions of justice is rotted or undercut when social workers are compelled or mandated to supplement the state’s hand of surveillance and control. Moreover, offenders attach particular importance to the destigmatizing element of rehabilitation work, which helps them navigate the extraordinarily shameful reentry process. Research and policy implications of this study are also addressed.

The law enforcement profession has long been perceived as a stressful occupation, with the dangers of police work considered particularly relevant in explaining officers’ responses to stress and poor mental health outcomes. The current study contributes to the empirical literature on the sources of stress in policing and provides insight into the underlying mechanism of the relationship between job-related stressors and occupational stress. Using data from a representative sample of sworn police officers in the Korea Coast Guard (N = 757), this study examines the association between perceived job dangerousness and occupational stress as well as the possible mediating mechanisms through which job-related danger may increase occupational stress, specifically highlighting the mediating role of strain-based and time-based work–family conflict. The results indicate that officers who perceive their job as dangerous are more likely to experience higher levels of occupational stress. Additionally, work–family conflict mediates the impact of perceived job dangerousness on occupational stress, although only strain-based work–family conflict demonstrates a significant mediating effect. Based on our findings, we discuss policy implications in light of the unique demands of policing for the Korea Coast Guard.