ABSTRACT
Crime data are critical for criminological research. Commonly, there are official and nonofficial sources of crime data in the West. The official source involves official statistics, which are mainly based on the criminal incidents reported to the nation’s police departments. The nonofficial source provides data collected mostly from self-report surveys of crime and criminal victimization in the general population. Western studies have demonstrated that high-quality research on crime largely relies on high-quality data collection. Although China has initiated economic reform and an “open-door” policy since the early 1980s, crime research and crime data are considered sensitive because of the traditional Communist belief that such research and data are directly related to China’s “face” as a socialist country. Contemporary China provides a strategic setting for criminological research because the nation has experienced profound social changes and rising levels of crime since the implementation of its economic reform and “open-door” policy in the late 1970s.
