T. Wing Lo

School Bullying Among Hong Kong Chinese Primary Schoolchildren

The first comprehensive survey of 7,025 Chinese primary schoolchildren found that 24% of respondents reported that they had sometimes physically bullied another child. When children observed school bullying, 56% said they immediately reported it to their teachers. Another 20% tried to stop the bullying by approaching the bullies. The study also identified factors associated with bullying. These included coming from an adverse psychosocial background and having more contact with violent values through association with deviant peers and exposure to the mass media. On the basis of the research findings, potential methods of bullying intervention are discussed.

Resistance to the Mainlandization of Criminal Justice Practices A Barrier to the Development of Restorative Justice in Hong Kong

This article examines the political and legal barriers to introducing restorative justice (RJ) in Hong Kong. It argues that the processes involved in RJ may be in conflict with the rule of law, which is regarded by the citizens of Hong Kong as sacrosanct in their resistance to the “mainlandization” of criminal justice practices after China resumed sovereignty of Hong Kong. It is argued that, because it could admit such potentially harmful Chinese criminal justice concepts as “rule by the people,” “absence of the presumption of innocence,” “leniency for self-confession and severity for resistance,” and “toeing the party line,” RJ would be devoid of any restorative substance and could breach the principles of due process.

Diversion From Youth Courts in Five Asia Pacific Jurisdictions Welfare or Restorative Solutions

Since the 1970s, there has been a trend to move away from punitive and retributive approaches to reintegrative practices. This article provides an account of how young offenders in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions are diverted from being prosecuted in the youth courts and of to where they are diverted. The five cases demonstrate that diversionary measures in the Australasian jurisdictions tend to be more restorative in their practices than are those in Chinese-dominated jurisdictions, which adopt welfare responses. It is concluded that although there is some progress in the areas of decarceration and delegalization, the diversion goals of decategorization and deprofessionalization in Chinese-dominated jurisdictions have yet to be achieved. Such diversionary strategies carry the risk that many more young people committing minor offences may be subject to more intrusive measures and disguised social control in the name of diversion, welfare, or the prevention of future offending.

Community Service: Its Use in Criminal Justice:

Community service has been perceived as a desirable alternative to the use of shortterm imprisonment as a response to increasing crime rates. Although heavily used inWestern Europe and the Old Commonwealth, its adoption in the United States has been localized and patchy. Use in Asia, South America, and Africa is limited. This article reviews the use of community service in selected countries around the world. It concludes that community service can be used as a pretrial diversion, as a condition of probation or parole, or as an option to work off a fine by an impoverished offender. Very often, it is itself a stand-alone sentence, but it can also be used in addition to other sentences. Some countries give community service a secure place in the sentencing tariff, whether as retributively oriented “hard end” penalties or as rehabilitative and/or restorative endeavors. Others leave usage, within broad qualification criteria, to the discretion of sentencers.

The recent development of restorative social work practices in Hong Kong

Restorative justice has grown rapidly in the last two decades with the emergence of new practice approaches in juvenile justice and school social work.This article briefly analyses the backgrounds leading to the emergence of restorative justice around the world. It highlights the basic ideas and themes of restorative justice, and discusses how it may be adopted in youth services such as school social work and juvenile justice in Hong Kong.

Understanding criminal justice in Hong Kong

The research clarifies basic issues related to victim of crime as a social and legal phenomenon. This study defines victim of crime, analyses victimization and its causes based on the theories as lifestyle model, routine activity approach and opportunity. Besides, the article studies the international standards and the rights of victims like access to justice and fair treatment, restitution, compensation, and assistance. The role of victim of crime in the criminal justice system and government’s responsibility are also the core issues discussed in the research. Keywords Victim of crime, victimology, victimization, rights of victim of crime. References [1] Victimmology (Sixth Edition) (2012), Villiam G.Doerner and Steven P.Lab Anderson, Publishing (Elsevier) USA. [2] Andrew Karmen (2013). Crime Victims – An Introduction to Victimology. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, USA. [3] Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (UN General Assembly resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985, Annex A). [4] Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff. What is Victimology?. Monograph Series No.1. Seibundo Publishing. Japan. 2005. [5] Stephen Schafer: The Victim and His Criminal. New York: Random House. 1968. [6] ЧастнаяКриминология. Под. ред. ШестаковД.А. СанктП. 2007. [7] [Frank Schmalleger and Rebecca Volk (2005). Canadian Criminology Today: Theories and Applications (Second Edition). Pearson Pretice Hall. Toronto. [8] Handbook on Criminal Justice Responses to Terrorism. United Nations. New York. 2009. [9] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 8; Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN General Assembly resolution 3452 (XXX), annex), article 11. [10] Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (UN General Assembly resolution 40/34 of 29 November 1985). [11] Raising the Global Standards for Victims: The proposed Convention on Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. Seibundo Publishing. John P.J. Dusich and Kieran G. Mundy edited. Tokyo, Japan. 2009. [12] Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (UN General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005). [13] United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, articles 24 and 25; United Nations Convention against Corruption, article 32. [14] Establishing Victimology. Festschrift for Prof.Dr.Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff. 30th Anniversary of Dubrovnik Victimology Course. Peter Schafer, Elmar Weitekamp. [15] Villiam G.Doerner and Steven P.Lab (2012), Victimmology (Sixth Edition), Anderson Publishing (Elsevier) USA. [16] Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff. What is Victimology?. Monograph Series No.1. Seibundo Publishing Co.,Ltd. Japan. 2005. [17] Victimology and Human Security: New Horizons. Selection of papers presented at the 13th International Syposium on Victimology, 2009, Mito, Japan. Morosawa, Hidemichi Dusich, John J.P, Kirchhoff, Gerd Ferdinand, Wolf Legal Publishers, The Netherlands. [18] Marquart, J. W. (2005). Editorial introduction: Bringing victims in, but how far? Criminology & Public Policy, 4. [19] The Study of Victimology -Basic considerations for the study of theoretical victimology. Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff and Hidemichi Morosawa. (Victimization in a multi-disciplinary key: Recent advances in victimology). Wolf Legal Publishers. The Netherlands. 2009.

Criminal Recidivism of Incarcerated Male Nonviolent Offenders in Hong Kong

Criminal recidivism of the incarcerated population in Hong Kong has rarely been studied. The purpose of this study is to explore the recidivism rates and to identify significant predictors of reoffending among incarcerated male offenders convicted of a nonviolent offense in Hong Kong. Using a self-reported methodological design, 278 offenders were sampled. These offenders’ immediate past incarceration is used as the benchmark for this recidivism study. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year recidivism rates are 21%, 68%, and 87%, respectively. The findings denote that offending history, psychological attributes, interpersonal relationships, and environmental influences are significant reoffending risk factors. These findings, especially the alarming failure rates, highlight the need to seriously assess the effectiveness of intervention strategies used by the Hong Kong correctional system in preventing future offending. Implications for intervention strategies with emphasis on the risk factors for recidivism are discussed.

Workplace Violence in Hong Kong, China Nature, Impact, and Preparedness

This article reports a survey of workplace violence in Hong Kong. A sizable number of the 1,198 organizations that were questioned reported that they had experienced such violence over the 2 years preceding the study, but the problem was not prevalent. In both the private and government sectors, nonphysical violence happened more frequently than physical violence, and there was a reported lack of preparedness of many organizations to deal with the violence. Compared with private organizations, government organizations experienced more coworker and customer violence, but more private than government organizations believed that workplace violence caused the loss of key employees and clients. Correlation analysis found that a subculture of workplace violence appears to emerge over time, such that the more customer violence is experienced, the more is coworker violence, and the more the nonphysical violence, the more the physical violence. These findings are discussed with reference to international findings.

One Country, Two Cultures Are Hong Kong Mock Jurors “Mainlandized” by the Predominant Chinese Criminal Justice Concept of Confession?

Over-reliance on confession has had a long history in the Chinese criminal justice system. Recent high-profile wrongful conviction cases have raised public awareness of the coercive and torturous methods used to extract confessions. Despite the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong remains a common law jurisdiction and the most serious criminal offences are tried by a jury. The present study empirically examines the relative impact of DNA evidence, confession, eyewitness testimony, and victim testimony in a Hong Kong–Chinese mock juror sample. The results show that the participants placed greater value on DNA evidence than on confession, and placed the lowest value on testimonial evidence. It is argued that the situation of “one country, two cultures” remains strong: Whereas participants are still influenced by the Chinese criminal justice concept of confession, their judgment is still predominately influenced by the scientific evidence as commonly practiced in the West. Thus, no solid evidence has been found to confirm the emergence of mainlandization in Hong Kong’s criminal justice system.

Formation and Trend of Guanxi Practice and Guanxi Phenomenon

Abstract: With the increase of interactions between Chinese and international communities, guanxi, a Chinese term, has catching more and more attentions from non-Chinese speaking people. Guanxi, from a sociological perspective, is formed on the ascribed, social or third party bases through the mechanism of ganqing and renqing. Different from other scholars, the authors consider guanxi phenomenon is an outcome of co-impacts from Confucianism and institutionalization of material factors and structural factors. It is argued that guanxi phenomenon will decline in future China gradually because of rationalization required by capitalism but will not disappear completely due to human nature and cultural nature.