ABSTRACT
All societies attempt to regulate the conduct of their members, though they may differ widely in the sorts of behavior they condemn and sanction, the mechanisms through which judgments are made, and the punishments that are meted out. The types of punishment a society deems to be appropriate may vary as widely as ostracizing the offender at the one extreme, to painful forms of execution at the other. The population of prisons and camps rose rapidly during periods of mass campaigns for political orthodoxy, and still does following party and government decisions to crack down on crime. The People’s Republic of China’s legal system since 1949 may be analyzed in terms of the interplay between two models of law: the jural and the societal. The jural model focuses on formal, elaborate, and codified rules enforced by a regular judicial hierarchy, whereas the societal model emphasizes socially approved norms and values.
