Policing pandemic in China: investigating the roles of organizational adjustment, procedural justice, and police trustworthiness on public compliance

ABSTRACT

In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Soon after, China became the first country in the world to enforce strict lockdown protocols in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. This study examines the perceptions of pandemic rules enforcement during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 among 600 Chinese police officers. The analyses reveal that police departments’ prompt and adequate adjustment to the pandemic, police officers’ procedural justice in interacting with citizens, and police perceptions of police trustworthiness among the citizens all had direct and indirect effects on public compliance to lockdown enforcement during the pandemic. These findings affirm the role of police procedural justice in public compliance to law enforcement in China and stress the importance of organizational adjustment and public trust during an emergency situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications to pandemic-related policymaking and enforcement are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• COVID-19
• policing
• compliance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Those issued with an FPN under coronavirus regulations can pay a fine to avoid criminal proceedings.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kai Lin

Kai Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento. His research areas include the social and cultural etiology of interpersonal violence, comparative criminology and criminal justice, policing, and sexualities. His publications have appeared in journals such as Crime & Delinquency, Policing & Society, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Archives of Sexual Behaviors, and Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice.

Shan Shen

Shan Shen is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Administration of Chongqing University, China. She has published research on policing and intimate partner violence in journals such as Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Policing: an International Journal, and International Criminology.

Ivan Y. Sun

Ivan Y. Sun is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. His research interests include police attitudes and behavior, public opinion on legal authorities, and crime and justice in Asian societies. His most recent publications on policing have appeared in Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Police Quarterly, and British Journal of Criminology.

Yuning Wu

Yuning Wu is a Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Wayne State University. Her main research interests include citizen evaluation of crime and justice, policing, victimization, and law and society. Her recent articles have appeared in Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly and Social Science Quarterly.