Making the enforcement rehabilitative: Penal welfarism and emotional labor of police officers in Chinese drug policing

Abstract

With the recent prioritization of recovery in Chinese drug policy, drug police officers are called upon to adopt humanitarian and rehabilitative principles when dealing with drug offenders. Despite extensive studies on drug policing against the recovery turn, few have interrogated the emotional dimension of drug policing work as police officers are placed in emotional dilemmas of toughness and compassion. Drawing on ethnographic data of drug policing in a Chinese city, this study examines the emotive dimension of police officers involved in the drug rehabilitation mission, focusing on how police officers use emotional labor to navigate the tensions arising from their mandated engagement in rehabilitation services. The analysis reveals that the performance of emotional labor permeates and propels routine activities of police officers as they attempt to “rehabilitate” drug offenders, and they marshal emotional resources and manage emotions to accomplish rehabilitation. Their strategies include deconstructing life histories to actively provide meaningful enforcement, pursuing pathways of redemption that reinforce a sense of responsibility to suppress emotions, and expanding the power network by using gains to alleviate emotional fatigue. Findings highlight the importance of recognizing emotional processes in Chinese drug policing and provide implications for how to achieve positive outcomes from the emotional labor of police officers who seek to make drug enforcement rehabilitative.