Official status and the swiftness of criminal arrest

Building upon the conflict paradigm, the present study examines the impact of official status on the swiftness of criminal arrest in China and derives two major hypotheses from the Chinese culture and system: first, an individual's official status has a negative effect on the swiftness of criminal arrest by police, and second, an individual's own and friends’ official statuses have an interactive and negative effect on the swiftness of criminal arrest by police. Data collected from Tianjin, a large city in China, were used to test these hypotheses. The results support the hypotheses. Implications of the findings are discussed.