The analyses are based on the authors' readings, interviews, and observations during their five visits to PRC between 1982 and 1987. Individual papers provide a history of China and describe the role of the family in social control, Chinese social organization, and the role of popular justice. Other papers explain Chinese thinking about crime and social control, informal conflict resolution through the extensive use of mediation committees, the recent campaign to educate the public about Chinese laws, the factors related to the rise in juvenile delinquency, and the influence of ideological and humanistic elements in Chinese psychiatry. Further papers examine the formal structures and institutions of the criminal justice system, with emphasis on the unique aspects of the police, courts, and corrections in PRC. Concluding analyses summarize the problems involved in analyzing Chinese society, major contrasts between Chinese approaches and assumptions and those of Western cultures, and issues central to the future of social control in PRC. Chapter notes, index, and 227 references.