Is "Life Is Difficult, Without a Source of Income" the Primary Cause for Rising Crime and Delinquency among Young People Awaiting Job Assignment?

Abstract

Looking at the statistics concerning youth crime and delinquency in Beijing municipality over the last few years, we can see that the ratio of young people who are eligible for jobs and are waiting to be employed (daiye qingnian, or DYQ) to the number of youth criminals and delinquents has become higher and higher. (This former group includes young people for whom temporary work arrangements have been made and who enjoy the privileges of eligibility for permanent jobs, for education, and for military recruitment.) In 1978, the ratio was 7.7 percent; in 1979, 12 percent; in 1980, 19.6 percent; in 1981, 24.1 percent; in 1982, 32.2 percent. By the end of the first half of 1983, according to the statistics of the public security branch bureau of the Western municipal district, the ratio of DYQ perpetrators to crimes committed by young people had already risen to 41.9 percent.