Associate Professor

Jianhua Xu is an Associate Professor and department head in the Department of Sociology at the University of Macau (UM). He is also an adjunct professor at the Center for Macau Studies, UM; an affiliate at Institute of Collaborative Innovation, Centre for Data Science, UM; an Honorary Fellow in the Center for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong. He worked as a police officer in Mainland China from 2004 to 2006, was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008-09, and was a visiting scholar at the Australian National University in 2017 & 2019. He is currently serving as book review editor for Asian Journal of Criminology. His research interests include sociology of crime and deviance, policing, victimology, urban sociology, and Macau studies. His works have regularly appeared in top criminology journal The British Journal of Criminology. He has also published articles in other top criminology journals such as Theoretical Criminology and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, among many others.

Prof. Xu’s research have been supported with over five million MOP (USD 620,000.00) funding as a principal investigator and another over four million MOP (USD 500,000.00) as a co-investigator through various research projects. He is currently working on several projects including (1) China’s para-police chengguan, (2) commodification of policing, (3) the production of crime data, (4) the problem of missing children in China, and (5) crime and policing in Macau.

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, 2011-13
  • Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, 2010
  • Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Department of Criminology, the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, 2008-09
  • Policing
  • Macau Studies
  • Social Control in China
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Sociology of Crime and Deviance
  • Criminology
  • Chinese Society
  • Social Stratification and Inequality
  • Social Change and Crime
  • Policing
  • Qualitative Research Methods in Social Sciences (PhD)
  • Qualitative Research Methods in Criminology (Master)
  • 2019–present, Book Review Editor, Asian Journal of Criminology
  • 2017–2019, Elected Board Member, Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the U.S.
  • 2019 05-06, Visiting Scholar, School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University
  • 2017 06-08, Visiting Scholar, School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University
  • 2012–2018, External Member, Pearl River Delta Social Research Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • 2011–present, Honorary Fellow, Center for Criminology, the University of Hong Kong
  • 2013–2016, Deputy General Sectary, Chinese Society of Sociological Criminology
  • 2011, Li Ka Shing Prize (2009-10) (Best PhD Thesis Award), the University of Hong Kong (Only ONE award for PhD theses finished during 2009-10 from Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business and Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences at HKU)
  • 2011, Best PhD Thesis Award, Hong Kong Sociological Association (Only ONE award for all sociology PhD theses in Hong Kong every two years)
  • 2008, Honorable Mention Prize, for Doctoral Level Paper Competition in the Division of International Criminology, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting
  • 2008, RGC-Fulbright Hong Kong Junior Scholar Award (2008-2009) (One of four recipients in Hong Kong)
  • 2020-2022, “Street vendors’ adaptation to crackdown: a longitudinal ethnography on street vending in Guangzhou” (HSS-UMAC-2020-06), Specialized Subsidy Scheme for Macao Higher Education Institutions in the Area of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, Macau Higher Education Fund, MOP 308,700 (USD38,678)
  • 2019-2021, “Commodification of policing and the production of underclass violence: the case of para-police chengguan and street vendors in Guangzhou, China”(MYRG2018-00109-FSS), Multi‐Year Research Grant (MYRG) Level 4, University of Macau, MOP2,100,000 (USD260,481)
  • 2018-2020, “Legitimization Imperative: the production of crime statistics in Guangzhou, China”(MYRG2017-00115-FSS), Multi‐Year Research Grant (MYRG) Level 2, University of Macau, MOP 756,900
  • 2015-2018, “Commodification of policing and public disorder in China: A study of crime posters in Guangzhou” (MYRG2015-00163-FSS), Multi‐Year Research Grant (MYRG) Level 4, University of Macau, MOP 1.37 million
  • 2015-2018, “Micro-foundation of migrant violence towards police in Guangzhou: A situational social exclusion perspective” ( MYRG2015-00039-FSS), Multi-Year Research Grant (MYRG) Level 3, University of Macau, MOP 1.00 million
  • 2015-2016, “A Multi-Level Analysis of Victimization among Chinese Migrant Workers: Testing Routine Activities, Social Exclusion, and Social Disorganization Theories” (GRF14414014), HK$364,000 (01/2015-12/2016). (PI Zhong, Hua from Chinese University of Hong Kong)
  • 2014-2016, “Monitoring Recent Changes of Cross-border Drug Use and their Implications for Prevention/Control Strategies”. Beat Drugs Fund, Narcotics Division of Hong Kong Security Bureau, Co-Investigator (PI Zhong, Hua and Co-I Kent Lee from Chinese University of Hong Kong)
  • 2013-2014, “Policing migrant workers in China: a case study of Guangzhou”, University of Macau, Start-up Research Grant, Principal Investigator
  • 2012-2014, “Punishment and Violence in the People’s Republic of China: Voices from the Field on Crime Management, Social Exclusion and Brutalization”, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (Co-Director with Professor Borge Bakken)
  • 2012-2013, “Social Exclusion and Production of Violence: A Case Study of Illegal Taxi-drivers in the Pearl River Delta”, Small Project Funding, The University of Hong Kong, Principal Investigator
  • 2008-2009, “Crime and Victimization among Migrants in China”, Fulbright Hong Kong Scholar Programme (FHKDRP_HKU001/08), Principal Investigator
  • 2005-2006, “The Profile of Offenders and Victims of Serious Crimes”, Guangdong Police College Research Foundation, Principal Investigator
  1. Xu, Jianhua. 2020. Climbing the protest pyramid: a situational analysis of the resistance of rickshaw drivers in Guangzhou, China. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
  2. Xu, Jianhua, Anli Jiang, & Qipu Hu. 2020. Opportunities and Challenges in Macau’s Social Development over Two Decades’ Handover to China. Contemporary Studies on Hong Kong and Macau, (CSSCI) (徐建华/蒋安丽/胡启谱(2020)《“澳门回归20年社会发展的成就及挑战”,《当代港澳研究》)
  3. Xu, Jianhua, Anli Jiang. 2019. “Police Civilianization and the Production of Underclass Violence: The Case of Para-police Chengguan and Street Vendors in Guangzhou, China.” The British Journal of Criminology 59(1):64-84.
  4. Xu, Jianhua. 2018. “Legitimization Imperative: The Production of Crime Statistics in Guangzhou, China.” The British Journal of Criminology 58(1):155-76
  5. Hua Zhong, Jianhua Xu, Alex R. Piquero. 2017. Internal migration, social exclusion and victimization: an analysis of Chinese rural-to-urban migrants. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 54(4) 479-514.
  6. Xu, Jianhua. 2015. Claims-makers vs. non-issue-makers: Media and social construction of motorcycle ban problems in China. Qualitative Sociology Review, 11(2): 122-141.
  7. Xu, Jianhua. 2014. “Authoritarian policing with Chinese characteristics: A case study of motorcycle bans in the Pearl River Delta”, Crime, Law and Social Changes 61:439 460.
  8. Xu, Jianhua. 2013. Police accountability and the commodification of policing in China: a study of police/business posters in Guangzhou. The British Journal of Criminology.
  9. Xu, Jianhua, Karen Joe Laidler, Maggy Lee. 2013. Doing criminological ethnography in China: opportunities and challenges. Theoretical Criminology, 17(2) 271 279.
  10. Xu, Jianhua. 2012. Drive-away policing and situational crime prevention in China: an analysis of motorcycle ban (jinmo) policy in Guangzhou. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 56(2): 239-264.
  11. Xu, Jianhua. 2009. The robbery of motorcycle taxi drivers in China: a lifestyle/routine activity perspective and beyond. The British Journal of Criminology, 49(4): 491-512.

Book Chapters:

  1. Xu, Jianhua, Qipu Hu and Anli Jiang. 2020. Authoritarian Capitalism and Policing Studies in China, Pp.391-406, in Handbook of Public Administration in China, edited by Xiaowei Zang & Hon S. Chan, Edward Elgar Publishing
  2. Xu, Jianhua & Weidi Liu. 2020. Public criminology in China: neither public nor criminology, Pp.152-162, in Routledge Handbook on Public Criminologies, edited by Kathryn Henne and Rita Shah, London and New York: Routledge
  3. Xu, Jianhua. 2018. “Social Exclusion and Criminal Victimization: Migrant Workers’ Risk of Driving Motorcycle Taxis in Urban China.” Pp. 73-95 in Crime and the Chinese Dream, edited by B. Bakken. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press.
  4. Xu, Jianhua. 2016. “Criminologizing everyday life and doing policing ethnography in China”, Pp. 154-172, in Engaging with Ethics in International Criminological Research, edited by M. Adorjan & R. Ricciardelli, London and New York: Routledge.
  5. Xu, Jianhua & Liu, Jianhong 2015. “Crime and Punishment in China” in The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, edited by Wesley G. Jennings. Malden and Oxford: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
  6. Xu, Jianhua. 2013. “Urbanization and inevitable migration: crime and migrant workers”, Pp. 209-223 in Routledge Handbook of Chinese Criminology, edited by Liqun Cao, Ivan Y. Sun, Bill Hebenton. London and New York: Routledge.
  7. Xu, Jianhua. 2011. ¨Hong Kong, the state of criminology〃, Pp. 411-418 in Routledge Handbook of International Criminology: An International Perspective,edited by Sheldon. X. Zhang, Rosemary Barberet, Cindy J. Smith. London and New York: Routledge.

Book reviews:

  1. Xu, Jianhua. 2018. “Review of Peng Wang, the Chinese Mafia: Organized Crime, Corruption, and Extra-Legal Protection.” The China Journal 79:175-77.
  2. Xu, Jianhua. 2016. “Review of Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, The Politics of Controlling Organized Crime in Greater China”, The China Journal, 77: 193-195
  3. Xu, Jianhua. 2014. “Review of Jock Young, The Criminological Imagination”. Asian Journal of Criminology, 9:161-163.
  4. Xu, Jianhua. 2012. “Review of Susan Trevaskes, Policing Serious Crime in China: from ‘Strike Hard’ to ‘Kill Fewer'”. Asian Journal of Criminology, 7(3):273-275.
  1. Xu, Jianhua. 2019. “Macao’s success lies in diverse economy”, China Daily, (December 21, 2019) https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201912/21/WS5dfd7197a310cf3e3557fb17.html
  2. Xu, Jianhua. 2019. 徐建华,“澳门回归20年经济社会大发展”《中国日报》网评(2019年12月16日)https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201912/16/WS5df6efeea31099ab995f1ad5.html
  3. Xu, Jianhua. 2013. “Motorcycle taxi drivers and social exclusion in urban China”, in China Youth Daily. 中国青年报 2013年08月01日02版
  4. Xu, Jianhua. 2011. “Motorcycle taxis: ‘crime prevention’ and the social exclusion of migrant workers in China”, in Crimetalk.