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General strain theory (GST) has been one of the most frequently tested criminological theories. According to GST, strain tends to generate negative emotions, which create pressures for corrective action, such as crime and delinquency. Although GST has received strong empirical support, one under-addressed issue is the lack of diversity in sampling population in assessing the generalizability of the theory. Using survey data collected from 335 incarcerated women in four Chinese prisons, this study examined the impact of strain and negative emotions on the level of female criminality. The strain variable, physical abuse, and discrimination, exerted a positive effect on female inmates' levels of criminality, whereas negative emotions were not significantly related to female criminality. Two control variables, age of current offense and educational attainment, were predictive of female criminality, with younger and less-educated women having more serious criminality. Implications for future research and policy are discussed., (© The Author(s) 2015.)

Research has repeatedly showed that males aged between 16 and 24 years old account for a disproportionately large volume of crime. Armed forces are major employers of young males in their crime-prone ages and thus could play an essential role in crime prevention. The military is a highly structured and regimented total institution in which rigid behavioral norms and very close monitoring are imposed both on soldiers and on officers. Using data from 65 countries for the period of 1995 to 1999, this study assesses the crime-reduction function of the military by testing the influence of the relative size of the armed forces and the existence of conscription on national rates of homicide. The findings show that the size of the military and the existence of conscription are significantly related to homicide rates. Implications for future research are discussed.

This study provides a partial test of Klinger's ecological theory of police behavior using hierarchical linear modeling on 1,677 suspects who had encounters with police within 24 beats. The current study used data from four sources originally collected by the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), including systematic social observation, in-person interviews with officers, census data, and police crime records. It investigates the effects of neighborhood violent crime rates and concentrated disadvantage on officer vigor, controlling for individual-level officer characteristics and situational factors. The analyses reveal that police vigor was significantly shaped by beat-level crime rates, with high--crime rate neighborhoods experiencing higher levels of police vigor in handling suspects. The findings are not consistent with the ecological propositions set forth by Klinger. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research and theoretical development are discussed. (Contains 3 tables, and 12 notes.)

Domestic violence has emerged as a worldwide concern since the 1970s. Although a substantial amount of efforts have been devoted to assessing various aspects of domestic violence, a relatively small number of studies have empirically examined factors that shape public attitudes toward police response to such incidents. Even rarer is investigating the topic from an international, comparative perspective. Based on survey data gathered from approximately 550 college students in China and the United States, this study analyzes the effects of background characteristics, personal and vicarious experiences of crime, and perceptions of gender roles and violence on attitudes toward proactive and traditional police response to domestic violence. Compared to their American counterparts, Chinese students were less likely to favor proactive response and more likely to support traditional response. Chinese and American students' attitudes toward police response to domestic violence were shaped by some different and common factors. Implications for policy and future research are discussed. (Contains 2 notes and 5 tables.)

Objective: While empirical research on Chinese people's perceptions of crime has developed encouragingly during the past decade, an important issue regarding correlates of such fear – the media effect, frequently found by the Western literature as a critical source of fear – has largely eluded scholarly attention. This study investigates the effects of consumption of different media types on Chinese fear of crime, while taking a wide range of other theoretically relevant and empirically validated factors into consideration. Methods: Relying on data collected from a sample of residents in a large Chinese city, this study uses ordinary least squares regression to investigate the correlates of fear of crime. Results: Consumption of newspapers and radio reports of news is associated with lower levels of fear, and consumption of political and social news from television and the Internet is connected to higher levels of fear of crime. The vulnerability model, crime and justice model, and community model have also received some support in these data. Conclusion: This study provides robust support for the importance of the media in shaping public fear of crime, and indicates that the cultural context in which the media reports on crime is critical to understanding its role and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine citizens' satisfaction with police in Guangzhou, China and is aimed at answering two research questions: what is the general pattern of Guangzhou citizens' satisfaction with police; and what variables are salient in predicting satisfaction with police? Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a random sample of approximately 1,200 residents nested in 30 neighborhoods in Guangzhou, China. Hierarchical linear modeling was used for the data analysis. Findings – First, the majority of residents in Guangzhou held generally positive attitudes toward the police. Second, demographic characteristics were weakly related to satisfaction with police. Third, perception of police legitimacy was associated with evaluations of police performance. Finally, perceived neighborhood crime problems led to lower levels of satisfaction with police. Research limitations/implications – This research used cross-sectional data. Thus, the relationships between independent and dependent variables examined in this study are functional but not necessarily causal. Practical implications – Police in Guangzhou should seek ways to improve their relationship with never married residents and mitigate citizens' negative perceptions of neighborhood crime problem through various community policing programs, such as holding routine meetings with residents to discuss crime and disorder situations in the neighborhoods. Police in Guangzhou should also continue to inform local residents about the legal right of police to issue commands and increase levels of perceptions of police legitimacy and willingness to follow police instructions. Originality/value – This is the first paper to examine the correlates of satisfaction with Chinese police at the individual and neighborhood levels simultaneously. Using a random survey of citizens, along with methodological improvement in measurement and modeling, this paper provides readers with more accurate and representative information about public evaluations of Chinese police than previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the rise of crime rates since the 1960s in many countries has promoted a substantial number of international studies of crime, the crime-control potential of military participation has rarely been examined. Using data from 96 nations, this research assesses the effect of military size, as measured by the military participation ratio (MPR), on national homicide rates, controlling for economic and demographic variables. The results show that the degree of military participation is only weakly related to national homicide rates. Economic indices, such as income inequality and unemployment, are predictive of homicide rates. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant models in the social disorganization literature differentially focus on the ability of neighborhoods to enact social control and the willingness to do so. Despite the interest in both concepts, often no clear definition of either is provided, and there is little discussion of their relationship or how they interact to affect neighborhood crime rates. This paper begins to explore the relationship between ability and willingness to enact social control. The findings suggest that, for formal control, ability and willingness are closely related. Furthermore, at the aggregate level, concentrated disadvantage combined with perceived inability has a strong impact on neighborhood crime rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1989 Sampson and Groves proposed a model of social disorganization. In this model, neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status, high residential mobility, racial heterogeneity, and family disruption were predicted to have sparse local friendship networks', low organizational participation, and unsupervised youth groups. These, in turn, were predicted to increase neighborhood crime rates. Although Sampson and Groves' work represents the most complete model of social disorganization to date, it has only been tested twice and then on the same data set. Using data from 36 neighborhoods from 7 U.S. cities, this study examines extensions of Sampson and Groves' model suggested by past research findings. The results indicate that Sampson and Groves' model is modestly supported by the data. Social disorganization variables are more effective in transmitting the effects of neighborhood structural characteristics on assault than on robbery. Implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the systemic model that today's theories of social disorganization are based on acknowledges that neighborhood-based institutions may vary in their ability to contribute to effective social control, relatively little attention has been given to their role in understanding neighborhood rates of crime. At the same time, there is contradictory evidence about the role of social networks, which have been the focus of much research attention. This article builds upon past work to present a model of neighborhood-based institutional social control to address this lack of attention. The model centers on a conceptualization of institutional strength that distinguishes between the dimensions of institutional strength, and the causes and effects of variation in institutional strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid economic development since the late 1970s has resulted in a large-scale migrant population from rural to urban areas, with millions of Chinese children being left behind at home by their parents who migrated to city for work. The primary objective of this study is to test the effects of family, school and background characteristics on left-behind children's (LBC) and non-left-behind children's (NLBC) physical health, school performance, and delinquent behavior. A total of 765 LBC and 468 NLBC in elementary and middle schools participated in the study. Survey data were collected from three middle schools and seven elementary schools in Wuhan, China. The dependent variables included three measures of child development: physical health, school performance and delinquent behavior. The independent and control variables were divided into four groups: school and community attachment, parental attachment, parental and children commitment, and background characteristics. Mean comparisons and regression analyses were conducted to assess whether LBC and NLBC differ in their physical health, academic performance and delinquent behavior. LBC's physical health is significantly lower than that of NLBC. Being a LBC decreases the odds of being healthy by 51 percent. LBC and NLBC do not differ in their school performance and delinquent behavior. Being left behind without proper parental care appears to be detrimental to child physical wellbeing. The damaging impact of left-behind is limited to physical health as LBC and NLBC reported similar levels of educational performance and delinquent acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]