Yuning Wu

Citizen Trust in Police: The Case of China

This study assesses the extent to which Chinese citizens trust their police and explores factors that account for variation in public trust in police. Very few studies have empir ically examined Chinese attitudes toward police. Using conflict theory as the guiding theo retical framework and interview data collected from eight Chinese cities, the study tests the effects of conflict variables, including gender, age, education, income, employment, and perceived political influence, and relevant control variables on Chinese public trust in police. The results show that conflict variables only have a modest explanatory power o Chinese attitudes toward police. Younger Chinese and Chinese with lower levels of per ceived political power tend to have lower levels of trust in police. Chinese attitudes toward police are also influenced by satisfaction with public safety, governmental capability of dealing with crime, quality of life, and corruption among government officials Implications for future research are discussed.

Race, Immigration, and Policing: Chinese Immigrants’ Satisfaction with Police

A considerable body of research focuses on racial and ethnic minorities’ perceptions of police, yet non-Black, non-Hispanic minority groups, Asians in particular, are largely overlooked. Meanwhile, despite a fast growing immigrant population and the increasing demand on local police to enforce immigration law, research on police–immigrant relations remains limited. Using data from over 400 Chinese immigrants, this study examines the issues of race/ethnicity, immigration, and policing with a focal concern on Chinese immigrants’ attitudes toward police. Results indicate that the majority of Chinese immigrants rate police positively in overall performance and specific areas of effectiveness, integrity, and demeanor. Both universal and immigrant-specific factors are important predictors of immigrants’ attitudes. Chinese immigrants’ evaluations of police are not only affected by exposure to media coverage of police misconduct, neighborhood conditions, and city context, but also are intertwined with their opinions of their home country police and perceptions of US immigration authorities.

Chinese Policing in a Time of Transition, 1978-2008

This article examines the development of policing in China over several historical periods. It consists of three major parts. The first section provides a brief historical review of Chinese policing before 1949 and between 1949 and 1977 with the emphasis on mass-line policing. The second section, which is the core of the study, discusses several broad dimensions associated with the so-called strike-hard policing and community policing adopted by the Chinese police since 1978. These pivotal areas include policies and laws, organizational structure and development, field practices and effectiveness, and police accountability and reform. The last section discusses critical issues for the future development of Chinese policing and specifies directions for future research on Chinese policing.

Social capital, political participation, and trust in the police in urban China

Trust in the police has emerged as a critical issue in China where the police have experienced a crisis of legitimacy. Only a small number of studies, however, have empirically assessed Chinese citizens’ trust in the police. Moreover, the effects of citizens’ participation in social and political activity on evaluations of the police have rarely been investigated. Using survey data collected from over 3,500 Chinese citizens in eight cities, this study examines the impact of social capital and political participation on trust in the police, controlling for demographic characteristics, sense of safety, and locality. Trust in the leaders of neighborhood committees increased the likelihood of trust in the police. A sense of safety also raised the odds of trust in the police. Citizens’ trust in the police is also predicted by trust in neighbors, participation in political activity, and gender. Trust in the police varies across cities and is explained by some common and distinctive variables.

Trust in police: A comparison of China and Taiwan

Public trust has become a critical issue in transitional societies, such as China and Taiwan, where the legitimacy and accountability of the government in general, and legal authorities in particular, have been frequently scrutinized. Based on nationwide random samples, this study tests the explanatory power of three theories, the social structural thesis, the institutional performance thesis, and the cultural thesis, in accounting for public trust in police in China and Taiwan. Results show that Chinese citizens have higher levels of trust in police than do Taiwanese. The higher level of Chinese trust, to a large extent, derives from greater confidence in macroeconomic conditions and satisfaction with government responsiveness. The performance thesis, thus, receives the strongest support. Results also show some support for the cultural perspective that traditional values, such as interpersonal trust, promote trust in police in both societies. Policy implications are provided for enhancing police legitimacy and facilitating police reform in China and Taiwan.

Neighborhood Context and Police Vigor: A Multilevel Analysis

This study provides a partial test of Klinger’s ecological theory of police behavior using hierarchical linear modeling on 1,677 suspects who had encounters with police within 24 beats. The current study used data from four sources originally collected by the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), including systematic social observation, in-person interviews with officers, census data, and police crime records. It investigates the effects of neighborhood violent crime rates and concentrated disadvantage on officer vigor, controlling for individual-level officer characteristics and situational factors. The analyses reveal that police vigor was significantly shaped by beat-level crime rates, with high–crime rate neighborhoods experiencing higher levels of police vigor in handling suspects. The findings are not consistent with the ecological propositions set forth by Klinger. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research and theoretical development are discussed.

Public responses to intimate partner violence: comparing preferences of Chinese and American college students

Based on data collected from college students in Beijing and Hong Kong (China) and in Newark and Detroit (United States), this study assesses and explains citizen preferences of 2 major formalized responses to intimate partner violence (IPV)—law enforcement and social services intervention—in a cross-cultural context. Results show that Chinese respondents have lower support for law enforcement responses. Regional variation is only observed within China with students from Hong Kong supporting both law enforcement and social services responses more than their Beijing counterparts. Results also show that social attitudinal variables—including male dominance ideology, perceptions of IPV causation, support for the criminalization of IPV, and tolerance of IPV—influence public preferences of responses to IPV more than do demographic and experiential variables.

Support for the death penalty: Chinese and American college students compared

While a substantial number of studies have examined public opinion on the death penalty in the USA, very little research effort has been devoted to assessing Chinese attitudes toward the death penalty in general or comparing Chinese and American attitudes in particular. Using survey data collected from college students in several universities, this study compares and contrasts Chinese and American attitudes toward the death penalty and identifies factors that have similar or distinctive effects on such attitudes. The results indicate that Chinese students display a higher level of support for capital punishment than their US counterparts. Gender, victimization, and criminal justice-oriented concerns significantly shape both Chinese and American students’ attitudes toward the death penalty. Country differences are also identified, with fear of crime influencing Chinese but not American students’ support for the death penalty and crime control orientation affecting American but not Chinese support for the ultimate punishment. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

College Students’ Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence: a Comparative Study of China and the U.S.

Although attitudes toward intimate partner violence (IPV) have been the subject of many studies, little research has been conducted to comparatively assess public definitions of IPV in Western and non-Western countries. Drawing upon survey data collected from approximately 500 Chinese and American college students, this study compared and contrasted Chinese and American college students in their beliefs about what constitute IPV. Chinese students were found to be less likely to define abusive acts as IPV than their U.S. counterparts. Gender-role attitudes, such as beliefs of male dominance and IPV as crime, were among the most prominent predictors of students’ definitions of IPV. Chinese and American college students’ attitudes differed not only in what was defined as IPV, but also in what were the factors that shaped such attitudes. Directions for future research and policy were discussed.

Arab Americans' Opinion on counterterrorism measures: The impact of race, ethnicity, and religion

While domestic and international terrorism have become the focal concern of the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, little is known about Arab Americans’ attitudes toward counterterrorism policies that center on aggressive law enforcement practices. Using survey data collected from 810 Arab Americans, this study reported the general pattern of support for antiterrorism measures, including surveillance, stop and search, and detention, and examined the effects of race, ethnicity, and religion on measures targeting the U.S. citizens generally and Arab Americans specifically. The results revealed that the majority of Arab Americans showed weak to modest support for aggressive law enforcement practice, especially those targeting Arab Americans. Arab Americans’ attitudes toward antiterrorism measures were significantly related to their ethnic identities and religion with those who identified themselves as Arab Americans and Muslim showing less favorable attitudes toward counterterrorism measures. Arab Americans’ confidence in the federal government was also found to be positively associated with support for antiterrorism practices. Implications for research and policy are discussed.