1EQQ8ZzGD

china
Is it true that in China, you can
hire someone to serve your prison
sentence?
Ti Zhao, Born and partially raised here
The short answer is: Yes, you could hire someone to serve your
prison sentence. It's illegal and not that common, but happens
enough that we have a term for it: 顶罪 (ding zui: to
take blame for someone else's crime). While there are documented
cases of body-doubles serving crimes, there is also a
lot of speculation. As with many things, the full story is more
complex than meets the eye.
The most common questions that arise around this topic
are:
1. What kind of justice is this?
2. Why would anyone be willing to give up their freedom in
exchange for monetary compensation?
It's not justice, any way you slice it. It's a sad reflection of
the reality of power abuse, corruption, and the things that the
wealthy and powerful can get away with. Ding zui is illegal,
but corruption runs deep, and many in the judicial system
(with enough bribery) simply turn a blind eye.
The practice of standing in for others' crimes goes way
back. The rationale ran like this:
• Crimes call for punishments.
• Punishments are partly a display to warn other potential
criminals against the repercussions of committing said
crime.
• The criminal, by paying for a stand-in, is — quite literally
— "paying for his crime."
Stand-in punishments have also been, at times, an act of selfsacrifice.
examples include:
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