RT Article
T1 Rural-to-Urban Migration and Juvenile Delinquency in Urban China: a Social Control Perspective
JF Asian journal of criminology
VO 13
IS 3
SP 207
OP 229
A1 Shen, Yinzhi
A2 Zhong, Hua
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1745078878
AB In the past decade, the number of rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in urban China has soared. Official criminal justice statistics point to their higher level of deviance compared to urban adolescents. This study examines whether rural migrant children are more delinquent than their urban peers in the school sample. It provides explanations for the gap by linking Hirschi’s social bond theory with the literature on migration in China. Moreover, it formally tests which elements of social bonds mediate the relationship between migrant status and delinquency. Based on a large-scale survey in Guangzhou involving 470 rural migrants and 838 urban junior high school students, our analysis shows that migrant adolescents engage in slightly more delinquent behavior and have weaker social bonds than local adolescents. Attachment to parents and school, commitment to education, and belief in law fully mediate the positive relationship between migration and delinquency. Such findings indicate that within China’s dual urban-rural structure, rural-to-urban migration can increase these adolescents’ exposure to risk factors that undermine their social bonds to conventional society and thus lead to higher levels of delinquency.
K1 Rural-to-urban migration
K1 Juvenile delinquency
K1 Social control
K1 Mediation
K1 China
DO 10.1007/s11417-018-9267-z