I am interested in criminology, criminal justice, empirical legal research and socio-legal studies in China. With my thesis, I hope to systematically demonstrate the social investigation scheme in China’s juvenile criminal justice system, with an emphasis on qualitative social science research methods, like participant observation and semi-structured interview. I intend to discuss what is the rationale behind this scheme from the perspectives of judges, community correction officers and social workers, and explore the reasons behind their different understandings.