High rates of prosecution and conviction in China: The use of passive coping strategies

• Emphasizes cultural influences in the Chinese criminal proceedings.
• Shows case withdrawal could explain the high rates of prosecution and conviction.
• Proposes useful procedural adjustments.

This article demonstrates that the passive coping strategies utilized among Chinese police, prosecutors and judges could partly account for the high rates of prosecution and conviction in China. Passive coping strategies are defined as inactive tactics employed to avoid disagreements and conflicts among people or institutions. After a brief introduction, a review of the relevant statistic rates is offered, which indicates that both the prosecution and conviction rates remain persistently high. Next, an outline and evaluation of the formal intra-institutional relationships between the criminal authorities are offered. After that, a detailed account of the application of case dismissal tactics, a type of passive coping strategy, to the legal decision-making process is demonstrated. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of the use of passive coping strategies in the decisions to prosecute and convict, and offers some legislative recommendations.