Search

General Strain Theory (GST) was applied to understand the emergence of cyberbullying during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, how contextual stress and network attributes contributed to cyberbullying perpetration has yet to be explored. Thus, to fill this gap in the literature, this study surveyed 494 young adults from one college of a university in China during the COVID-19 lockdown. The contextual stress was measured by the average stress reported by each individual's self-nominated peer. Logit regression with interactive terms was conducted to investigate whether network attributes moderate the stress-cyberbullying nexus. The results revealed that cyberbullying perpetration was directly triggered by individual stress rather than contextual stress. Further, young adults with increased individual stress had a higher probability of cyberbullying perpetration, if their betweenness was high. Notably, for those with elevated betweenness, the association between contextual stress and cyberbullying perpetration was attenuated. Our findings provide novel insights into understanding cyberbullying phenomenon during the pandemic. Roles of individual stress and contextual stress on trigging cyberbully perpetration varied with one's network position. Both the network analysis and the GST theory had significant potential to be applied in further cyberbullying studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the differences in parenting practices and their effects on juvenile delinquency between China and the United States. Its principal goal is to gain a more culturally relevant understanding of the possible ways of preventing delinquency through the improvement of parenting styles. The analyses were based on a nationally representative sample of American adolescents and a probability sample of Chinese adolescents in the same age group. To increase data comparability, the study employed similar measures of parenting practices and delinquency in the two samples. The analysis indicated that the American adolescents perceived a higher level of parental responsiveness but a lower level of parental control than did the Chinese adolescents. While parental responsiveness was inversely related to delinquency in both samples, parental control predicted lower delinquency only in the U.S. sample. Moreover, the negative relationship between parental monitoring and delinquency was stronger among the American adolescents than among the Chinese adolescents. The results underscore the need to consider cultural differences when assessing the impact of parenting practices on delinquency, or when applying the research findings to delinquency prevention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rampancy of corruption in China has stimulated a wide range of scholarly attention on its etiology. The general strain theory (GST) predicts that the economics-related strain, promotion-related strain, and work-related strain increase white-collar offenses. However, the generalizability of GST's prediction of white-collar offenses in non-Western societies is unclear. Applying a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, this study involved interviews with 23 grassroot public officials, convicted for corruption, and surveyed 687 similar offenders in 60 prisons in China. The qualitative results show that previously mentioned strains are not sufficient to explain the strains that lead to corruption in Chinese public officials. Strains rooted in the unique political system and cultural values of China (resources strain, deviant subcultural strain, and Renqing (personal interests) strain) are also shown to be associated with corruption. The quantitative results indicate that all six types of strains are significantly and positively associated with the frequency of corrupt behavior. The current study not only expands the scope of GST to non-Western societies, but also provides suggestions on further revision and extension of GST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to investigate the capacity of restorative justice (RJ) to reduce incarceration in China. It utilizes a "top-down" approach to explore how macro transitions in Chinese politics and criminal justice translate into micro implementation of RJ, which ultimately affects incarceration. Interviews with Chinese police, prosecutors, and judges revealed how minor injury cases were diverted by RJ throughout the criminal justice system. In addition, 172,731 judicial judgments were coded to estimate RJ's effect on sentencing lengths and the probability of probation for offenders. The findings suggest that the Chinese approach to implementing RJ does liberate numerous offenders from harsher incarceration. Yet, Chinese RJ reforms remain a thin version without deep roots in civil society, in "bottom-up" social movement excellence, or thorough foundations in restorative Confucianism with roots in ancient Chinese society. RJ is still a marginalized part of a Titanic that resists turning away from the punitive "Strike-Hard" ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, exposés on the trafficking of women have caught the public's attention in China. However, due to data scarcity, the scope and nature of such criminal activity are not well understood. The authors of this study provide a new angle in the analysis of human trafficking by digitizing and analyzing court sentencing documents on trafficking in China during 2014–2015. Through mapping court data to geographic information and performing network analysis, the study presented a comprehensive picture of intra-provincial, inter-provincial, and international trafficking patterns. The data showed that international trafficking has become the largest category in the trafficking of women, and victims were typically young women in their 20s originating from Vietnam, Myanmar, and North Korea who were sold into central provinces. Domestically, inter-provincial trafficking outnumbers intra-provincial cases. Across provincial borders, women were trafficked from southwest to central provinces. Intra-provincial trafficking was concentrated in four provinces: Henan, Anhui, Shandong, and Hebei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]