Dr. Ai Ma is the Qian Duansheng Chair Professor and serves as Director of the Academic Committee at CUPL School of Sociology. Professor Ma is a master’s advisor in Psychology, and doctoral advisor in criminal psychology. He is Director of the Research Center of Criminal Psychology at CUPL. As a certified psychologist, Professor Ma is council member of the Chinese Psychological Society, and Director of its Legal Psychology Committee. He serves as editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia China (3rd Edition) Psychology – Legal Psychology subsection and editorial board member of Psychological Science. He is Distinguished Visiting Professor at National Prosecutors College of P.R.C., adviser to the National Prosecutorial Office of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in juvenile prosecution issues and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Gansu University of Political Science and Law.

Since graduating from CUPL with an LLB in 1984, Professor Ma has been teaching and conducting research at CUPL. He received a master’s degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences postgraduate program in 2003, and a PhD from CUPL in 2007. Supervised by China’s renowned criminal psychologist Luo Dahua, Ma is the first PhD in criminal psychology cultivated in China. Professor Ma’s main research interests include legal psychology, psychology of crime and criminal justice, sociology of deviance, social issues, psychology of artificial intelligence, and non-contact psychological assessment. He has taught courses in legal psychology, criminal psychology, criminal justice psychology, sociology of deviance, applied social psychology, and interrogation psychology. Professor Ma has received numerous awards in teaching and research, such as “The Most Popular Teacher on Campus”, “Outstanding Research Achievements”, “Excellent Teacher and Supervisor” etc.

Selected Publications

Criminal Psychology (China Renmin University Press, 2015) (with Zhang Enyou; part of 21st Century Chinese Higher Education Textbook Series in Psychology)

Criminal Psychology (3rd Edition) (China University of Political Science and Law Press, 2016) (Executive editor; Eleventh Five-Year Plan National Textbooks for General Higher Education)

Criminal Psychology (2nd edition) (China Renmin University Press, 2018) (with Zhang Enyou & Li Jie; part of 21st Century Chinese Higher Education Textbook Series in Psychology)

“On the Choice of Crime” (Renmin University Reprint, Jurisprudence 1989: 3) (Included in A Study of Sin – A Basic Theory of Chinese Criminology)

“Psychological Analysis on Spiritual Control of Falun Gong Practitioners” (Journal of Political Science and Law 2000: 3)

“A Survey and Reflection on the Crimes among Disadvantage Groups” (China Legal Science 2003: 4)

“Re-discussing the Choice of Crime” (China Prison Journal 2006: 4), (Renmin University Reprint, Criminal Law 2006: 12), (included in Studies on the Psychology of Crime and Justice, China University of Political Science and Law Press, 2006)

Risk Behavior Monitoring and Early Warning Method and System Suitable for Special Populations, China Invention Patent: ZL 2018 1 1589293.6, January 3, 2020, Chief Inventor.

Method and Apparatus for Screening Applicable Legal Provisions, China Invention Patent: ZL 2018 1 1589269.2, March 31, 2020, Chief Inventor.

“How Affective Computing Techniques Can Advance the Development of Crime Risk Assessment Tools” (Psychological Science 2020: 4, Corresponding Author)

Major Grants

2012 Ministry of Education General Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project (12YJAZH088): “An Empirical Study of Chinese Citizens’ Perception of Judicial Justice”

2018 National Key Research and Development Program of China 2017YFC0822503.

2019 Ministry of Justice General Project on the Research of the Rule of Law and Legal Theory of the State: “A Study on the Group Psychology of Extremism”