Since 1956, every Chinese citizen has belonged either to an agricultural household (nongye hukou) or to a city household or town household (feinongye hukou). Those with a city or town household registration are given coupons to obtain heavily subsidized rice, oil, and cloth from the state-operated shops. They are entitled to job placements, housing, education, and medical benefits in their home town or city. Because the government must finance all these benefits, it has been reluctant to allow the transfer of an agricultural household registration to a nonagricultural household registration; consequently, rural to urban migration has been restricted. Under China's new push for economic reform, the hukou system of household registration is one of the social institutions that has been altered to accommodate economic demand for more labor. Although the freedom of movement that has resulted from this change in the household registration system has addressed the labor issue, it has eroded the system of social control whose basis was the hukou. Changes in the registration system have allowed a large transient population to develop, and this population has been the major factor in the rise in crime, especially in the economically prosperous regions of China. Because the traditional mode of policing cannot address this transient problem, public security authorities have used a campaign model of policing. This model uses rapid policing actions directed toward target crimes, areas, or populations. Police are given disproportionate discretion in both arrest and detention. The campaign model alone, however, will not solve the crime problem. Chinese officials must decide whether to return to the past tradition of the hukou or develop a new model of justice. 5 notes and a 23-item bibliography