Taiwan was governed under the "6-3" law, which empowered the police to detain citizens. Moreover, since the strongest resistance to the Japanese military had come from the small towns and villages of south and central Taiwan, the Japanese instituted a "collective responsibility" system to control those areas: if anyone committed a crime, all of those in the same unit (consisting of ten households) would also be punished.
根據「六三」法案，警察有權逮捕扣押人民，並且由於日軍在台遭到最頑強的抵抗，是來自中南部的小街鎮和村落，故而為了有效控制台灣鄉村地區，而建立保甲制，任何犯罪，同屬一甲（十戶）內的成員均要受到連帶處分。