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Durkheimian Democracy in China?

By Jonathan Simor

It is difficult to ponder the facts, let alone the meaning of acts like the recent string of lethal attacks on kindergartens and other schools for young children in China by knife wielding middle aged men (mostly, a woman tried yesterday). Edward Wong's reporting for the New York Times on this story this week included interesting speculation from a Chinese sociologists.?They choose children because it?ll have the largest negative impact on society,? said Tang Jun, a sociologist in Beijing. He said the attackers did not appear to know their victims personally, so the assaults ?must be an expression of their dissatisfaction with society.? If so it may reflect the counter cycle to the Chinese state's use of punishment (and the death penalty in particular) as a means of trying to be "responsive" to the people in one of the few areas of life where government can take acts that are presumptively in line with popular sentiments but which keeps the state in total control...continue to full post

Full post as published by Governing Through Crime on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).