Introduction: crime, law and criminology in China

Abstract

Over the past two and half decades, China has experienced a profound social transition from a state socialist command economy to a market economy. These fundamental changes have altered every aspect of Chinese society. From 1990 to 2002, china's GDP increased by an average of 9% per annum, making it the sixth largest economy in the world by 2002 with a GDP of $US1.23 trillion. China's transformation has also given rise to serious social problems that have required major innovation in the roles of state, provinical and local agencies, including those tasked with policing and social control funtions. The drive to modernise the policing and regulatory agencies, is crucial: crime and social disorder have beome one of the China's most significant social problems. Social transition and its impact on crime, law and government responses have become an increasingly important area of research in criminology. This publication highlights the problems of crime in China and hopefully will add impetus to the development of sound research in the broader interest of the role of comparative research in academia and amongst policymakers