Crime Patterns During the Market Transition in China

Abstract

A sizable literature on crime patterns during periods of social change and modernization has been developed. A number of theories have been proposed to explain variations in crime levels; these theories have largely been rooted in the classical Durkheimian theory of anomie. Most empirical studies of crime patterns examine levels of violent and property crimes and link variations in the levels of these crimes to indicators of social change and modernization using cross-national data. Moving beyond the conventional focus on levels of violent and property crimes, the present study focuses on whether rates of economically motivated crimes (e.g. larceny, grand larceny, robbery and fraud) increased faster than less or non-economically motivated crimes (e.g. homicide, assault and rape) during the period of social change from state socialism to a market economy in China. The study finds that economically motivated crimes have increased faster than less or non-economically motivated crimes. The paper is in favour of a structural explanation that expanding economic motivation is a driving force for economically motivated crimes during the transition to a market economy in China. This explanation is more consistent with the patterns of crime found than conventional anomie-based explanations in their accounting for the crime patterns.