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Examining the Fairness of Criminal Judicial Procedures in China: a Quantitative Analysis of the Influential Factors in the Application of Technical Investigations in Drug-related Cases

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Abstract

Amidst concerns from both Chinese and Anglo-American scholars regarding the deployment of technical investigative measures, questions have emerged about their potential misuse and the resulting impact on judicial procedure fairness, which encompasses procedural participation, equality, transparency, rationality, timeliness, and finality. This study explores procedural fairness issues in China’s criminal justice system by focusing on applying technical investigative measures in drug-related cases. We have gathered a sample of 800 verdicts of drug-related criminal cases with 1134 defendants from China Judgments Online. Employing logistic regression analysis, we investigated the influence of extra-legal and legal factors on applying technical investigative measures. Our research reveals that these factors significantly impact the utilization of technical investigative measures. Variables such as the defendant’s occupation, education, domicile, and ethnicity substantially influence the decision to deploy technical investigations. Furthermore, factors like the defendant’s crime type, severity, involvement in co-offending, and prior criminal records also affect the application of these measures. The results indicate that investigative agencies consider certain extra-legal factors when applying technical investigative measures that may result in potential misuse and consequently may affect the fairness of China’s judicial procedures. This study holds significant potential to inform and catalyze reforms within China’s criminal justice system.

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All data that support the findings of this study are included in this manuscript.

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Funding

This research is a phase achievement of the general project “Research on the Path of Convergence between Juvenile Criminal Substantive Law and Procedure” funded by the National Social Science Fund (Project No. 21BFX182), and the prosecutorial theory research project “Study on the Procuratorial Supervision Responsibility in the Implementation of the Two Laws for Juveniles” sponsored by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (Project No. GJ2022C29).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, Chongqing University, No. 83 Shabei Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Zhengfa Zi, Pengfei Zhang & Qiannan Liu

  2. School of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Saint Francis University, Loretto, PA, USA

    Lening Zhang

Authors
  1. Zhengfa Zi
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  2. Pengfei Zhang
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  3. Qiannan Liu
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  4. Lening Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhengfa Zi.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 4

Table 5

Table 4 Multicollinearity detection
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Table 5 Logistic regression results
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Zi, Z., Zhang, P., Liu, Q. et al. Examining the Fairness of Criminal Judicial Procedures in China: a Quantitative Analysis of the Influential Factors in the Application of Technical Investigations in Drug-related Cases. Asian J Criminol 19, 51–67 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-024-09416-2

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