Reforming Criminals in China: Implications for Corrections in the West

Visits to three prisons in China revealed that the Chinese penal system, although conceived within a Marxist context, is humanistic, naturalistic, and practical in emphasis. Considering the cultural differences between Orient and Occident, specifically the Chinese respect for power and authority and their belief that the State and its officials serve as guardians of socialist ideology, the author discusses some implications for the West. It concludes that we may have to perceive rehabilitation in more realistic terms. Instead of abandoning rehabilitation, we can learn from the Chinese and translate the concept into providing assistance to offenders that is compatible with the external environment.