Police supervisors' work-related attitudes in China
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| Author | Ivan Y Sun,Jianhong Liu,Yugang Chang,Yuning Wu |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865816638907 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2017, Vol. 50(3) 419–438
Police supervisors’ work-related
! The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865816638907
Jianhong Liu
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
Department of Sociology, University of Macau, China
Ivan Y Sun
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of
Delaware, USA
Yuning Wu
Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University, USA
Yugang Chang
Southwest University, Chongqing, China
Abstract
While the past two decades have witnessed a fast growing of policing literature in China,
officers’ job-related attitudes remain severely under-researched. Using survey data collected
from 212 police supervisors in a major Chinese city, this study examined the patterns of
Chinese police officers’ occupational attitudes toward selective enforcement, legal restric-
tions, community policing, and use of force, and factors that influence such attitudes. About
half the respondents were in favor of legal restrictions, and the majority of officers supported
the notions of selective enforcement, community policing, and use of force. Male, older
officers, those who had no military experience, and officers who worked at field stations
favored selective enforcement than their counterparts, whereas supervisor who were
younger and worked at nonfield stations were more supportive for legal restrictions.
Supervisors’ role orientations toward law enforcement and order maintenance influenced
their preference for community policing. Implications for future research and policy were
discussed.
Keywords
Chinese police, community policing, legal restrictions, police occupational attitudes, selective
enforcement, use of force
Corresponding author:
Ivan Y. Sun, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Email: isun@udel.edu
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Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 50(3)
Introduction
. . .from a global perspective, criminology as practiced in the United States. . . appears to
constitute the centre of our discipline, whereas China/Greater China. . . occupies part of a
periphery. . .in the case of China, those on the periphery face genuine hurdles of regular
access to sufficient criminal justice system data to produce work of sufficient quality to meet
‘‘international’’ standards of recognition. More broadly, these external demands often
diminish the periphery’s willingness to engage with core local problems, constantly being
required to justify their research and findings in a primarily center-focused context
(Hebenton, Sun, & Cao, 2014, pp. 344–345).
Although the impediments to conducting criminological research in China have been
widely acknowledged (also see Liang & Lu, 2006; Zhang, 2014), the past two decades can
be viewed as the golden age of Chinese criminology, with a large amount of studies on
various aspects in crime and justice published (Cao et al., 2014). In the field of policing,
researchers have investigated how Chinese police strategies and tactics have evolved and,
in some cases, revolved under the strong influences of rapid economic and social trans-
formations (e.g., Deng & O’Brien, 2013; Dutton, 2005; Tanner, 2005; Trevaskes, 2003;
Xu, 2014). Scholars have also examined how organizational reforms and legislations
have been implemented to maintain social stability and the legitimacy of police forces
(Fu, 2005; Ma, 1997, 2003; Wong, 2009; Wu, Sun, & Fichtelberg, 2011). Additionally,
attention has been paid to the pivotal roles and complex functions carried out by the
People’s Armed Police (PAP) (Cheung, 1996; Sun & Wu, 2009). Further, studies have
analyzed the guiding philosophies and operational elements of community policing
(Jiao, 1995; Wong, 2001; Zhong, 2009), and identified challenges and factors influencing
police-community relations and public trust in the police (Du, 1997; Wu & Sun, 2009).
The purpose of this study is to assess the patterns of Chinese police officers’ occupa-
tional attitudes and factors that influence such attitudes. While research on Chinese
policing has been on the rise in both quantity and quality, this line of inquiry has focused
predominately on aggregate-level (e.g., city, province, or nationwide) phenomena with
little attention to individual officers’ beliefs, attitudes, skills, and work habits. So far,
only three studies have investigated factors related to Chinese officers’ occupational
outlooks, all using survey data from cadets in a same police college (Cuvelier, Jia, &
Jin, 2015; Sun, Cretacci, Wu, & Jin, 2009; Sun, Sobol, Cretacci, & Phillips, 2010). The
generalizability of their findings is limited as cadets are in a very early stage of formal
and informal socialization, a process that tends to gradually mold police occupational
attitudes over time (Van Maanen, 1974).
Research on police job-related attitudes is instrumental in revealing core elements of
police culture and the likelihood of, and key to, successful police reforms, such as the
implementation of community policing and the integration of racial minorities and
women into police forces (Crank, 2010; Martin & Jurik, 2006; Skogan, 2006). Police
occupational attitudes along important issues such as community policing, police-com-
munity relations, police roles and priorities, use of force, and job satisfaction, have been
the focus of a great deal of Western literature, which tends to see these issues as closely
related to one another, constituting the core aspects of policing work. For example, how
do officers view their relationship with the community may influence their tendency of
Liu et al.
421
use of force, and how do officers think about law and legal restrictions may affect their
ways of enforcing the law. Thus, we set out to examine these core aspects of police
occupational attitudes in the Chinese context, particularly from the perspectives of more
experienced officers, rather than cadets.
Using survey data collected from police supervisors in a large Chinese city, this study
assessed the effects of officers’ background characteristics and role orientations on their
attitudes toward selective enforcement, legal restrictions, community policing, and use of
force. These four aspects of police occupational attitudes are especially worthy of explor-
ation given several considerations. For example, although China has officially endorsed
community policing more than a decade ago, evidence on officers’ acceptance or support
for community policing remains scarce. Similarly, while the authority to use force, par-
ticularly deadly force, represents one of the most unique and critical features of the
police profession (Klockars, 1985), research examining Chinese officers’ perceptions of
use of force is lacking. Furthermore, China’s recent anti-corruption campaigns and
reemphasis on a fair and equal application of the law also cast a legitimate question
about the impact of these movements on officers’ occupational outlooks and operational
behavior. This study attempted to address these knowledge gaps in the existing literature
on Chinese policing.
Two research questions guided this study:
(1) What are the general patterns of officers’ attitudes toward selective enforcement,
legal restrictions, community policing, and use for force?
(2) Do officers’ demographics and role orientations influence their attitudes toward
selective enforcement, legal restrictions, community policing, and use of force?
Findings of this study can not only expand our understandings on the attitudinal pro-
pensities of police officers in China but also generate useful implications for policy and
future research.
Chinese policing in an era of changes and challenges
Although Chinese police have made significant progress in modernization and profes-
sionalization since the 1980s, they also face some tough challenges. First, along with
Chinese people’s rising rights consciousness during the past three decades (Goldman,
2005), public protests have increasingly become the norms rather than the exceptions for
citizens to express their discontent with local governance. The number of protests has
risen tenfold from 8700 in 1993 to 87,000 in 2005 (Perry, 2010), threatening social sta-
bility and the legitimacy of the Party-state. Police forces, including both the regular
police (i.e., Peoples’ Police) and PAP, have been constantly mobilized to maintain
public order and quell mass incidents. While most incidents were civil, violent and
even deadly confrontations occurred occasionally, straining police-community relations.
Second, police legitimacy has been continuously plagued by widespread corruption,
brutality, and misconduct. The recent arrest and conviction of China’s former public
security czar Zhou Yongkang has elucidated that corruption and abuse of power are not
limited to lower-level or local police personnel. Consequently, although a majority
of protests in China today relate to issues such as labor rights, environmental issues,
422
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 50(3)
land-taking, and social securities, a minority of incidents are directly related to discontent
with the police. As scholars pointed out, protests and litigations against the police trig-
gered directly by police abuse of power and misconduct, such as illegal search and deten-
tion and torture, are not uncommon (Liebman, 2012; O’Brien & Li, 2006). It is estimated
that approximately one-fifth of the public protests were...
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