The Ideology And Practice Of Mao Zedong’s Criminology

Mao Zedong’s criminology derived from the turbulent old China. In the late QingDynasty, China, because of Western imperialistic countries’ invasion, was graduallyreduced to semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Chinese traditional culture wastherefore impacted by Western culture. Failed in Chinese capitalistic reformation andinfluenced by Russian October Revolution, some progressive Chinese intellectualsstarted to spread Marxism in China. Marxism was formally introduced after the May4th Movement in China, which provided a solid cultural foundation for the emergenceand development of Mao’s criminology. The core theory of Mao’s criminology wasdirectly originated from Marxist general principle. Mao’s criminology was consisted oftwo major parts-criminal causes and crime prevention. In old China which wasdominated by exploiting class, Mao thought the root of crime at that time was causedby social system; labourers was under the extreme oppression and exploitation bybureaucratic landlords, and they committed crimes out of starvation and despair. In theera of People’s democratic dictatorship, social system was no longer the major cause ofcrime as class antagonism had been eradicated by the newly established socialistsystem. However, the crime still existed because of the disturbance caused byKuomintang reactionaries, and also the unrest triggered by a few unreconstructedpeople who were still poisoned by feudalism. Mao analysed crime prevention inaspects of politics, social policies and heavy sentences. Instead of discussingcriminology systematically and theoretically, Mao, on the other hand, made socialpolicies which were beneficial to social development and people’s livelihood based onpractical experiences. Franz von Liszt had a well-known saying that ’The best socialpolicy is the best criminal policy’. Mao’s research on crimes in the early days of newChina was very profound and worth people analysing. His criminology not only is atheoretical knowledge but could also be employed in practice through certain policymeasures. His discussion about cracking down economic crimes and punishingmalfeasance is of great value to modern society.