Crime, Juvenile Delinquency and Deterrence Policy in China

The mid-1950s in China are still remembered as a time when 'doors were unbolted at night and no-one pocketed anything found on the road' (ye bu bi hu, dao bu shi yi). In recent years, complaints about corruption and social diversiveness have become prevalent, with people harking back to the honesty and sense of unity that reportedly prevailed during those early years of the People's Republic a period when society displayed, one criminologist has asserted, a standard of behaviour seldom seen in history.' The Fifties are now regarded by adult Chinese as a 'golden age'. Crime rates fell considerably up to 1957, but rose rapidly thereafter as a consequence of the political campaigns against Rightists. In 1956 the total crime rate was a mere 23 cases per 100,000 population.2 In 1957 it rose to 58, due largely to political arrests, and in 1958 to 120; 'counter-revolutionary crime' that year accounted for 45.8 per cent of all cases.3 The total number of