This book is based on my PhD thesis conducted at the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ivo Aertsen. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my supervisor. Without his great patience and tolerance, without those years of support and guidance, this project would not be possible. I would also like to thank cordially Professor Carine Defoort and Professor Ching Lin Pang for the encouragement and attention throughout the project and all the constructive suggestions and comments. I also thank sincerely Professor Lode Walgrave and Professor Michele Panzavolta for the helpful comments and suggestions. I am deeply grateful to Professor Jianhong Liu from University of Macau, whose profound insight has been a continual source of inspiration. I am indebted to Professor Xiaohua Di from Nanjing University for offering opportunities, discussion, and support. My special thanks to Springer Series on Asian Criminology and Criminal Justice Research for making this work accessible to a wider audience. I am also indebted to those who have contributed to the successful completion of the empirical phase of this project. My sincere thanks to Ms. Guan, Ms. Wang, and Mr. Guo who are working at the China’s local justice department, as well as many other research participants, whose names cannot be listed here, for their time, assistance, and invaluable inputs.