Book Review: Crime, punishment and the prison in modern China
| Author | Robert C. Berring |
| DOI | 10.1177/146247450500700116 |
| Published date | 01 January 2005 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
References
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Moore, M.H. (1995) ‘Learning by doing: Linking knowledge to policy in the develop-
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Wikstrom, R.V. Clarke and J. McCord (eds) Integrating crime prevention strategies:
Propensity and opportunity, pp. 301–31. Stockholm: National Council for Crime
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Rock, P. (1995) ‘ The opening stages of criminal justice policy making’, British Journal
of Criminology 35(1): 1–16.
Shapin, S. (1994) A social history of truth. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Weiss, C.H. (1986) ‘Research and policy-making: A limited partnership’, in F. Heller
(ed.) The use and abuse of social science, pp. 214–35. London: Sage Publications.
Jacqueline Tombs
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Crime, punishment and the prison in modern China, Frank Dikotter. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2002. 441 pp. ISBN 0–231–12508–9.
Professor Dikotter has written a powerful, enlightening and quite readable book. Each
of the four themes that limn the thrust of the book: crime, punishment, prisons and
modern China is inescapably diffuse. Yet using the deft hand of the comparatives, the
author weaves a meaningful whole from them.
The book is built on a foundation of powerful sources. In his Introduction, Dikotter
describes the variety of archival sources that he used, as well as their flaws. Such trans-
parency is welcome and it is characteristic of the objective tone that prevails through-
out the text. In 2004 no one would bother to contend that anyone’s treatment of such
loaded subjects is truly objective, but here the author steers an admirable course. As one
who has read more than his share of books and articles about criminal law in China,
most simply rehashes of the same principles, occasionally built on new bits of research,
I approached this book with some trepidation. But the trope of the modern prison as
the symbol of national progress intrigued me. At each stop Dikotter carefully worked
through his sources, juxtaposed seemingly disparate ideas, and came up with genuinely
engaging conclusions. This book moves the ball forward. Recognizing the immediate
disconnect between the aspirations and declarations of modern prison reformers and
the reality of prisons somehow works well in contra point to the dissonance between
Chinese legal enactments and reality. A very challenging set of questions thus worked
in surprising harmony.
I was especially pleased with the manner in which the author delves into China’s
experience as it worked at modernization through the means of prison reform and
criminal law. Chapter 5, ‘The science of crime (1927–1949)’ is a good example. The
text works through a bit of the history of Western thought in the field. Then we
encounter the careful description of the introduction of criminology into China by
studying the work and influence of Chinese thinkers. As Chinese authors like Zhao
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