THE CONCEPT OF DANGEROUSNESS IN THE PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA AND ITSIMPACT ON THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Throughout the history of the People's Republic of China criminal proc ess and administrative sanctions have been viewed as a medium for the exercise of coercive state power against those who would undermine the existing political order, and Chinese socialist political ideology ha s consistently justified this position. Dangerousness is a concept inf ormed by those political considerations necessary to maintain order in a one-party socialist state. Dangerousness forms an element of both c riminality and sentencing in China. Dangerousness to society is an exp licit component of liability under the Criminal Law and liability for administrative punishment. It is also a major factor in determining se ntences. The Chinese system's preoccupation with dangerousness to soci ety is also demonstrated by the use of regular anti-crime campaigns wh ich target activities viewed as being particularly dangerous to societ y at a given time. While the concept of individual dangerousness is no t codified, Chinese scholars have in recent years argued that it is an implicit element in determining the appropriate sentence for individu al offenders. In fact, individual dangerousness is also an important f actor in deciding whether or not to commit a person to Re-education Th rough Labour or Forced Job Placement, which are administrative sanctio ns. The concept of dangerousness also plays a role in the differentiat ion between various categories of incarcerated persons and their treat ment. Prisons and remote labour camps are thus reserved for counter-re volutionaries, prisoners serving at least ten-year sentences or with k nowledge of state secrets, recidivists, those who resist reform and th e like. Treatment of individual prisoners and detainees also depends o n perceived levels of the dangerousness they pose to society and each other, whether in the reform technique employed during incarceration o r in deciding on early release and Forced Job Placement.