Public Legal Education and Inmates' Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Official Punishment in China

Posted: 16 Jul 2008

See all articles by L. Zhang

L. Zhang

Southern University of Science and Technology - Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Southern University of Science and Technology - Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials

S.F. Messner

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Z. Lu

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: 1999

Abstract

Although it is widely recognized that an offender's perceptions of the legitimacy of legal sanctions are directly related to his or her subsequent behavioural adjustment, few studies examine the factors that affect such perceptions. The present study addresses this issue by examining a unique social policy - public legal education - that is part of the Chinese system of social control. We describe the rationale, content and implementation of this policy. We speculate that public legal education may serve a positive function in legitimizing the Chinese criminal justice system and that offenders' perception of sanction fairness may be an indicator of this function. Our specific hypothesis is that the availability of public legal education in an offender's neighbourhood is positively related to his or her perception of sanction fairness. Using data from the city of Tianjin, we assess this hypothesis in a multivariate analysis. The data support our hypothesis. In addition, we also find that severity of punishment is negatively related to such perceptions, consistent with distinct features of Chinese criminal justice practice.

Suggested Citation

Zhang, L. and Messner, S.F. and Lu, Z., Public Legal Education and Inmates' Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Official Punishment in China ( 1999). British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 39, Issue 3, pp. 433-449, 1999, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1160574

L. Zhang (Contact Author)

Southern University of Science and Technology - Department of Materials Science and Engineering

No 1088, xueyuan Rd.
Xili, Nanshan District
Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055
China

Southern University of Science and Technology - Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials

No 1088, xueyuan Rd.
Xili, Nanshan District
Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055
China

S.F. Messner

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Z. Lu

affiliation not provided to SSRN

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