Abstract
Mainly through a case study, this article examines Chinese women’s involvement in one form of organised crime—illegal pyramid selling—which is increasingly prevalent among female offenders in recent years in China. The article discusses the socioeconomic context to situate the findings and introduces the research methods and data. It then details the case study discussing the following: first, the nature of pyramid schemes and the Chinese law concerning the illicit business; second, migrant women’s entry into illegal pyramid selling and their motives; and third, the roles that women play in the criminal operations. In addition, women’s gains and losses as a result of participation in the crime are explored. Finally, it concludes the article by highlighting the empirical evidence presented and offers implications of the research.
Highlights
Organised crime has drawn increasing attention of academics, enforcement agencies, policymakers, journalists and the general public, what organised crime really is remains contested (Wright 2006)
Organised crime research has focused on criminal enterprise and the criminal markets (e.g. Antonopoulos 2016; Hobbs 1988)
Organised crime research is often based on the experiences of women in the North of the Globe whilst women in the Global South are typically underrepresented
Summary
Organised crime has drawn increasing attention of academics, enforcement agencies, policymakers, journalists and the general public, what organised crime really is remains contested (Wright 2006). More recent research (see Shen 2015) has paid attention to Chinese women as perpetrators in the black-society style criminal organisations, sex work management and internal child trafficking. These studies highlight the visibility of women in organised crime. In China, past research in regard to migration, deviance and crime has examined drug problems among migrant youths (Liu, 2011), as well as inadequacy in public policy in response to rural migrants’ problems which are viewed as structural factors for migrant offending (Lo and Jiang 2006; Zhao and Kipnis 2000). This study—which investigates female migrants’ participation in criminal enterprise—is hoped to fill in some of the gaps
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