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Secretary ›› 2021, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (4): 3-16.

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The Forging of Strategic Law-enforcement Behaviors of Street-level Bureaucrats

SHEN Shanshan,YANG Fan   

  • Online:2021-07-15 Published:2021-09-02

Abstract: By exposing to three structural factors,street-level bureaucrats obtain three strategies during the law enforcement,namely,positive law-enforcement,passive law-enforcement,and law-enforcement shirking. During the routinized law enforcement process,considering the rules clarity and public accountability,street-level bureaucrats would value both reciprocity norms and self-interest and conduct positive law-enforcement behaviors. If the law-enforcement process is under strict control from higher-ups,street-level bureaucrats would apply several strategies such as rule dependence,peer collusion,and blame avoidance,eventually choose to passive law-enforcement. When the high-ups intensify the control and the demand for public accountability,street-level bureaucrats would have limited leeway to use their discretion in the design of implementation. By evaluating the complication of working tasks and goals,street-level bureaucrats will choose the strategies of law-enforcement shirking. The analysis to the three types of strategies in law enforcement is helpful to understand the behaviors of street-level bureaucrats and provide suggestions for standardizing frontline law-enforcement management.

Key words: street-level bureaucrat, law enforcement, strategic law-enforcement