RT Article
T1 Police Discretion and Restorative Justice in China: Stories from the Street-level Police
JF International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
VO 65
IS 4
SP 498
OP 520
A1 Zhang, Yan
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1750541564
AB Based on ethnographic data collected from one local police station in China, this article attempts to examine the use of discretion by Chinese police in three different restorative justice (RJ) programs. With reference to Wilson’s organizational style of policing, the hybridity of watch-man, legalistic and service style in Chinese policing is identified, which can help conceptualize how police decision over mediation work has been institutionally co-shaped. This article also deploys Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy with specific focuses on how the police select cases and facilitate an agreement between stakeholders. Coping strategies defined by Lipsky are found to be employed by the police to confront their huge workload and complicated cases. Overall, RJ in China is primarily promoted as universal top-down national reforms; meanwhile, police discretion, catalyzed by bureaucratic rationalities and the political imperative of social order and stability, is conducive to both the divergence and convergence between RJ in law-books and in action.
K1 Discretion
K1 mass line
K1 policing styles
K1 Restorative Justice
K1 social stability maintenance
K1 Street-level bureaucracy
K1 China
DO 10.1177/0306624X20944686