Patterns of Juvenile Offending in Shanghai and Brisbane
| Author | Jian Xu,Jeremy Prichard,Zhigang Wei,Ross Homel |
| DOI | 10.1177/00048658040370S103 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Patterns of Juvenile Offending
in
Shanghai
and
Brisbane
Zhigang Wei and
Ross
Home1
Grifith University, Australia
Jeremy Prichard
Australian Institute
of
Criminology, Australia
Jian
Xu
East China University
of
Politics and Law, People’s Republic
of
China
his paper reports an analysis
of
participation rates and types of delin-
T
quent behaviour using self-reported offending data from school
students and apprehended juvenile offenders in Brisbane
(n
=
903)
and in
Shanghai
(n
=
565).The rate of participation in most categories of offend-
ing in the Brisbane sample was higher than in the Shanghai sample, with
Brisbane school students being much more likely than Shanghai students
to
report at least one type
of
offence (85.8% vs. 28.8%). However, factor
analyses revealed a common crime pattern across both samples, with
behaviours grouping into theft, property-related offences, fighting, and
disturbing public order. Brisbane school respondents were more likely
than their Shanghai counterparts to commit multiple types of offences.
Co-offending peaked
at
ages 15-16 in Brisbane and 17-18 in Shanghai,
but was more common in the Shanghai sample than in the Brisbane
sample.
It
is
argued that compared with Australian young people there
is
a greater presence of social institutions in the lives
of
Chinese adoles-
cents in the form of family, community and state controls, and that these
mostly informal control systems appear
to
have been successful
so
far in
containing the criminogenic impacts
of
rapid social change.
This article undertakes an analysis
of
the patterns of juvenile offending using self-
reported delinquency data collected from different groups of juveniles in Brisbane,
Australia and Shanghai, China, focusing
on
the participation rate, variety
of
delin-
quent behaviour, and co-offending in the two cities.
Australia and China are quite different countries with different social struc-
tures, cultures and populations. Australia is
a
liberal democratic society, in which
law plays a very important role.
By
contrast, traditional mechanisms of social
Address
for
correspondence: Zhigang Wei, Law and Justice Foundation
of
New South Wales,
GPO
Box
4264,
Sydney, NSW
2001,
Australia. E-mail:
zhigangwei@lawfoundation.net.au
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PATTERNS
OF
JUVENILE OFFENDING
IN
SHANGHAI AND BRISBANE
control in China are ethics, emphasising the importance of mediation and the
family in maintaining social order and harmony. China is currently undergoing a
major social transition, moving from a centralised economic planning system to a
relatively decentralised socialist market system; from a policy of national isolation
to an ‘open door’ policy (Gaylord, 2000). The rapid economic growth that has
taken place since China’s adoption of an ‘open door’ policy has brought about
many positive changes. Politically, China occupies a pivotal strategic position and
its weight in the international system is increasing. Socially, the orientation of the
people and the tone of society have changed dramatically. Economically, the
growth rate during the past two decades can rightly be regarded as a miracle, and,
accordingly, living standards have been improved greatly.
Yet rising living standards have also been accompanied
by
rapid urbanisation,
the emergence of an increasingly large transient population, corruption, inefficient
law enforcement, a materialistic value system, and
so
on. These problems, among
others, have led to an increase in all categories of crime at all levels of society,
including that of juvenile crime. Since the early 1980s, juvenile crime has
increased dramatically, from
7.0%
in 1980 to 20.4% of all crimes in
1984.
From
1980 to 1995, juvenile crime reached an average of 18% of total crime (Wang
&
Bao, 1997, p.
132).
In Australia, although juvenile crime rates appear to have levelled off
in
the
1990s, young people are overrepresented in motor vehicle theft and burglary
(Cunneen
&
White, 2002; Wundersitz,
1996).
The situation seems to result from
such related trends as the youth unemployment rate and stresses on families
(National Crime Prevention, 1999, p.
196).
The spectre of family break-up and
growing parental indifference continues to arouse anxieties among politicians and
social commentators, who see this as leading to diminished care and supervision of
children, and therefore
to
greater social instability in the long term (Hil, 1998).
This article reports an analysis of participation rates and types of delinquent
behaviour in Shanghai and Brisbane. The broad research question that animates
this
analysis is whether, despite recent rapid social and economic change
in
China,
juvenile crime is less frequent and less serious in that country than in Australia, due
to China’s more elaborate systems of informal social control and its historical
reliance on Confucian ethics and the family to maintain order. The analyses
in
this
paper aim to answer the following specific questions: (1) What are the differences
and similarities in the participation rates between a representative school sample
and offender sample in each city?;
(2)
What is the relationship between age and
delinquent behaviour?; and
(3)
What are the characteristics of the offending types?
Given the volume of material, this paper will mainly focus on description rather
than statistical analysis of the reasons for the differences, which will be the topic of
a future paper.
Crime and Informal Social Control in China and Australia
Before discussing the criminological perspectives that will be employed in this
analysis, it is best to acknowledge the challenges posed
by
comparative criminology.
Comparative study of juvenile crime is difficult for several reasons. The variations
in culture and political systems create diverse contexts. The statistics on youth
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