ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current status of public criminology in China. To do so, we explore the production of professional criminology and its dissemination to the public. We argue that criminology in China is rather under-developed. Together with criminological knowledge in English language literature produced by international scholars, the development of criminology in and of China is at best in its early childhood. For a lay Chinese audience, criminology is often thought of as equivalent to criminal psychology. We argue that such a phenomenon has its roots in the lack of development of professional criminology and the over-emphasis on individual and psychological factors for crimes while ignoring social structural reasons. Although the development of public criminology is desirable in China, the task will be very challenging due to the authoritarian nature of the Chinese Party-state.
