Patterns of Juvenile Offending in Shanghai and Brisbane

Abstract

This paper reports an analysis of participation rates and types of delinquent 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 offending 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 adolescents 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.