diff --git a/rest_framework/compat.py b/rest_framework/compat.py
index 914beab77..2e0c0fc16 100644
--- a/rest_framework/compat.py
+++ b/rest_framework/compat.py
@@ -115,14 +115,6 @@ def _resolve_model(obj):
     raise ValueError("{0} is not a Django model".format(obj))
 
 
-# TODO: Remove
-# JSONField is only supported from 1.9 onwards
-try:
-    from django.contrib.postgres.fields import JSONField
-except ImportError:
-    JSONField = None
-
-
 # coreapi is optional (Note that uritemplate is a dependency of coreapi)
 try:
     import coreapi
diff --git a/rest_framework/serializers.py b/rest_framework/serializers.py
index 9a231830e..3665bf0a9 100644
--- a/rest_framework/serializers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/serializers.py
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ from django.utils import six, timezone
 from django.utils.functional import cached_property
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 
-from rest_framework.compat import JSONField as ModelJSONField
 from rest_framework.compat import set_many, unicode_to_repr
 from rest_framework.exceptions import ErrorDetail, ValidationError
 from rest_framework.fields import get_error_detail, set_value
@@ -51,6 +50,11 @@ try:
 except ImportError:
     postgres_fields = None
 
+try:
+    from django.contrib.postgres.fields import JSONField as ModelJSONField
+except ImportError:
+    ModelJSONField = None
+
 
 # Note: We do the following so that users of the framework can use this style:
 #
diff --git a/rest_framework/utils/field_mapping.py b/rest_framework/utils/field_mapping.py
index dff33d8b3..0503a701c 100644
--- a/rest_framework/utils/field_mapping.py
+++ b/rest_framework/utils/field_mapping.py
@@ -8,9 +8,14 @@ from django.core import validators
 from django.db import models
 from django.utils.text import capfirst
 
-from rest_framework.compat import DecimalValidator, JSONField
+from rest_framework.compat import DecimalValidator
 from rest_framework.validators import UniqueValidator
 
+try:
+    from django.contrib.postgres.fields import JSONField
+except ImportError:
+    JSONField = None
+
 NUMERIC_FIELD_TYPES = (
     models.IntegerField, models.FloatField, models.DecimalField
 )