![handle is hein.journals/crmlsc49 and id is 1 raw text is: Crime Law Soc Change (2008) 49:1-6
DOI 10.1007/s10611-007-9087-z
Editors' introduction
Ting Gong - Stephen Ma
© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007
Abstract
A perplexing and perpetuating pathology, corruption has incessantly haunted human
society. Despite intensified governmental and public efforts at controlling corruption in
recent decades, official transgression continues to surface in various ways of abusing the
unique power and trust that a government holds. While much has been said about causes,
conventions and consequences of official corruption in general terms [e.g., 5; 14; 9; 1],
there have also been attempts to look into specific political, economic and cultural
environments to see how corruption varies spatially and temporally [e.g., 6, 15; 7; 3; 2]. In
recent years, scholarly attention has inevitably riveted on China, a deeply embattled country
where corruption has surged to unprecedented levels since the onset of market-driven
reform more than two decades ago [16; 12; 11; 10; 4]. However, research on Chinese
corruption has yet to be integrated with the established literature on corruption and anti-
corruption reform. While many readers in the West are still unaware of China's recent
efforts to curb corruption, despite being informed by the media of its prevalence, less clear
are the cross-national impact and implications of China's corruption, as most analyses of
Chinese corruption have appeared as works of area studies. Less still is known whether and
to what extent China's experience is comparable to other countries. Although there is a
growing number of comparative studies of corruption in Asia in recent years [e.g., 17; 13; 8],
China has been insufficiently engaged.
With these concerns in mind, the authors in this volume present their individual research
on corruption in China and other Asian and Pacific countries in order to engage readers in
provocative comparisons. The volume's geographic coverage of Asia and the Pacific with a
focus on China is significant. It aims to broaden readers' horizons by including some
T. Gong (E)
Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong,
Tat Chee Avenue 83#, Kowloon, Hong Kong
e-mail: tgong2@cityu.edu.hk
S. Ma
California State University, Los Angeles, USA
' Springer](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/crmlsc49&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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