Premium
Creative Death Penalty Reform in China: The Case of Drug Transportation
Author(s) -
Trevaskes Susan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/lapo.12051
Subject(s) - punitive damages , criminal justice , china , dilemma , punishment (psychology) , ethos , balance (ability) , political science , optimism , criminology , capital (architecture) , capital punishment , law , law and economics , sociology , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , neuroscience , history
China's criminal justice system has, for decades, been consistently notorious as one of the world's most punitive. Recent reform of the nation's decades‐long harsh criminal justice policy to instead balance severity with greater leniency has given reformist‐minded judges and legal experts some cause for optimism. However, it has also created a judicial dilemma in determining how to apply this more lenient ethos in sentencing some capital crimes. This is particularly the case for the capital crime of transporting drugs, which is the focus of this article. This article reveals how reform can be achieved through skillful legal maneuvering for a crime category that is caught between two contesting views of the social benefits of punishment.