A Study Of The Problems Of The Profession Of Private Detective In China

Generally speaking, a private investigator is one who is entrusted by his employer to acquire secret information or evidences by means of overt or covert detective. With the development of the market economy and the pluralized social specialization,the profession of private detective is getting more and more attention from the public. However, so far in China, there are still not clear-cut laws or administrative regularions concerning the profession of private detective; therefore, this profession is actually struggling to survive by taking the advantages of the loopholes of our existing laws. Naturally, the problem of whether this profession is reasonable or legitimate has become a controversial issue in China, particularly in the academy of law studies. Facing the fact that the development of the profession of private detective is gainging momentum, we have to conduct an in-depth study on it so that we can come up with some effective measures which can enable us to solve some problems concerning this profession.This thesis is divided into four chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.Chapter one is a general survey of the development of the profession of private detective. In this part, the history of the development of the profession of professional private investigators in western countries is discussed. The emergence and development of this profession in such western countries as America and Britain result from complicated social and historical factors, among which, the rapid economic development is the most important one. Probing into such factors can not only help us to get a better understanding of the background of the the emergence and development of this profession but also can shed some new light on the study of the profession of private detective in China. In addition, this chapter reviews the history of the development of this profession, and analyzes the present situation of this profession in China. At present, we can get rich folk records about ancient private detective, from which we can get some idea about the prototype of modern profession of Chinese private detective, even though the ancient one can not be compared with the modern one either in terms of the scope of investigation. Owing to the opening and reforming policy and the prosperity of China, there is great demand for private detective, which gives strong impetus to the development of this profession.Chapter Two offers an in-depth analysis of the legal issues provoked by the profession of private detective in China. Without definite law warranty, we can not get definite answers to such questions as wether the identity of private investigators is legal or not, wether the evidences obtained by them are effective or valid, and wether the means adopted by them to aquire evidences are acceptable or not; thus the development of the profession of private detective is always taking advantage of the loopholes of the existing laws in China. In this chapter, the author of this thesis approaches the problem of the present profession of Chinese private detective from three perspectives, namely, with critical and quesitioning attitude, the author tries to sort out the sources of the predicment of the profession of private detective and the proofs wich can justify its existence so as to argue in favor of the legitimation of the profession of private detectives.Chapter Three expounds the rationality and necessity of the existence of the profession of private detective in China. Firstly, the author of this thesis illustrates the rationality of the existence of this profession in the light of the theory of the socialization of the public security services and the theory and practice of private enforcement of law. Secondly, the author proves that its existence is a necessity at present in China in the light of the theories of both law of civil litigation prodedure and law of criminal litigation procedure.In the last part of this thesis, the author offers a vista of the future of the profession of private detective in China in the light of the present chaotic state of and great demand for this profession. The author holds that proper laws concerning this profession and strict administrative regulations concerned should be made, and effective supervision mechanism should be set up so that the negative factors of this profession can be curbed in the light of proper law, and it can give full play to its positive factors. In so doing, the profession of private detective will be developed along the track of rationality and law.