关键词: 服刑人员, 法治价值观, 质性研究, 扎根理论

Abstract: The value of the rule of law is one of core socialist values. It embodies moral and legal ideals as a moral compass for Chinese citizens to regulate social behavior, adjust social relations and maintain social order. It also guides inmates to become law-abiding citizens to voluntarily assume their statutory duties to society and family. In China, correctional facilities re-socialize inmates with reshaping their value of the rule of law. The present study focused on the subjective experiences of inmates in the reshaping process. To address this issue, this study employed a qualitative research paradigm, using the Grounded Theory method, following the principle of theoretical sampling. Data from 3 different sources were collected: 8 inmates were recruited to participate in-depth interview with a semi-structured protocol, 3 inmates' documents of their confessions and 2 inmates' documents of their news interviews were collected. Data were analyzed with NVivo 11.0, the text encoding system included 5 core categories, 17 axial categories and, 73 opening categories. According to these codes, the present study constructed a concise and coherent theory of the process of reshaping inmates' value of the rule of law. Member checking, data triangulation, and Jaccard similarity coefficient were used to verify the study results' quality and validity. Results showed that the process of reshaping inmates' value of the rule of law can be divided into 4 stages. Stage 1: Foundation, inmates experienced shame and anxiety, gradually abandoned distorted thoughts, progressively accepted new social identities, experienced depression and missed their family. Stage 2: Accumulation, inmates accepted law education, virtue education as well as learn core socialist values and realized the harm of crime. Comparing the good of their family for them with their injury to their family, the guilt experience emerges. And the civilian police encouraged inmates to construct legitimate behavior, they started to correct the criminal values on their initiative. Stage 3: Transformation, inmates reflected on their criminal behaviors, identified the root cause of their distorted values and regretted the crime. This reflection accumulated and sublimated into respect for the law. Consequently, inmates organized law-abiding information and integrated it into their self-schema. Stage 4: Expansion, even the self-schema was renewed, inmates were also worried about social rejection, the devaluation of social evaluation, and even suspected the possibility of returning to society. Under the guidance of the civilian police, inmates expanding the value of the rule of law to future social lives. Planning for law-abiding behaviors, their belief in law was fostered. The findings of this study could provide theoretical support for the propaganda of the rule of law and law education. This will promote the public to acquire legal knowledge and practice the value of the rule of law.

Key words: inmates, values of the rule of law, qualitative study, grounded theory