Overview

Few social issues have received more public attention and scholarly debate than the death penalty. While the abolitionist movement has made a successful stride in recent decades, a small number of countries remain committed to the death penalty and impose it with a relatively high frequency. In this regard, the People’s Republic of China no doubt leads the world in both numbers of death sentences and executions. Despite being the largest user of the death penalty, China has never conducted a national poll on citizens’ opinions toward capital punishment, while claiming “overwhelming public support” as a major justification for its retention and use. Based on a content analysis of 38,512 comments collected from 63 cases in 2015, this study examines the diversity and rationales of netizens’ opinions of and interactions with China’s criminal justice system. In addition, the book discusses China’s social, systemic, and structural problems and critically examines the rationality of netizens’ opinions based on Habermas’s communicative rationality framework. Readers will be able to contextualize Chinese netizens’ discussions and draw conclusions about commonalities and uniqueness of China’s death penalty practice.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bin Liang ,  Jianhong Liu
Publisher:   The University of Michigan Press
Imprint:   The University of Michigan Press
Weight:   0.480kg
ISBN:  

9780472038732

ISBN 10:   0472038737
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   15 November 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Study Chinese Public Opinion on Capital Punishment in a New Environment Chapter 2. Diversity of Netizens’ Opinions: What Were Commented by Netizens? Chapter 3. Rationales of Netizens’ Decisions: Why do They Support or Reject Death Sentences? Chapter 4. Interactions: How do Netizens Respond to Each Other? Chapter 5. Variances of Netizens’ Opinions: Crime Types, Defendants and Victims, Legal Procedure, and Media Reporting Chapter 6. Criminal Justice System and its Professionals in the Eyes of Netizens Chapter 7. Social, Systemic, and Structural Problems: How Are Netizens’ Opinions Embedded within the Framework of Contemporary Chinese Society? Chapter 8. Netizens’ Discussion of Death Sentences: Rationality or Irrationality? Chapter 9. Lin Senhao Case: A Live Debate of Life or Death Chapter 10. Public Opinion in A Unique Form Appendix 1. List and Summary of All Cases Appendix 2. List of officially-charged crimes and number of offenders being charged Appendix 3. List of total numbers of netizens’ comments, reply comments and use of foul language Appendix 4. Basic reporting statistics by cases Appendix 5. A Select List of Foul Words References

Reviews

Winner: Association of Chinese Professors of Social Sciences In the United States (ACPSS) 2022 Best Scholarly Publication Award * ACPSS Best Scholarly Publication Award *

Author Information

Bin Liang is Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. Jianhong Liu is Distinguished Professor of Law at University of Macau.

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