Despite the crime wave, official statistics reveal that China can maintain a relatively stable social order. However, experts predict that the crime rate will increase from 15 percent to 25 percent annually. Major issues related to the crime problem include violent crime, group crimes as a form of organized crime, and the corruption of public officials. The increasing urbanization of the population is also having an effect on crime rates. Since 1978, sociological research has been reestablished step by step, and criminology has gained ground. However, ideological stereotypes, interference by some government officials, the difficulties of obtaining access to information, and issues related to the reliability of statistical figures all pose difficulties in studying crime in China. Nevertheless, Chinese criminologists are enjoying more freedom and independence and have been eager to discuss crime causes. They also have refuted the previously dominant residual theory, according to which the socialist system provides no soil for growing crime, so that all crime in socialist society can be traced to the influences of the old society or foreign countries. Tables and figure