Delinquency in China: Study of a Birth Cohort

• NCJ Number: 184202
• Author(s): Marvin Wolfgang Ph.D.
• Date Published: May 1996
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Research Preview
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

This study of a cohort of persons born in 1973 in the Wuchang district of Wuhan, China, compared juvenile delinquents with nondelinquents in terms of education, employment, and family issues.

Abstract

Of 5,341 persons born in the Wuchang district in 1973, less than 2 percent had a record of juvenile delinquency by 17 years of age. Of 81 who were delinquent, 76 percent were males. The level of juvenile delinquency was far lower than that in other studies in the United States, Sweden, and England. The researchers then compared the 81 who were delinquent to a control group of nondelinquents. Results showed striking differences between delinquents and nondelinquents in school deportment, achieved level of education, school drop-out rate, type of employment, and unemployment rate; in such intangibles as attitude toward learning and goals in life; and in a number of qualities defined by neighborhood committees, including bad individual habits and family harmony. The study is expected to continue through the year 2000 and will extend to the entire city of Wuhan. Plans are also to expand the study to other regions of China and to include a self-report delinquency study.