Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

Prior research has identified discrimination as a cause of delinquency among migrant children. Few studies, however, have examined how discrimination is related to delinquency. The current research aims at bringing more understanding to this issue. Based on the general strain theory, this study posits that discrimination facilitates delinquent behavior because it reduces social support, generates negative emotions, and erodes social bonds. To test these hypotheses, this study collected survey data from a probability sample of 1,300 migrant children who attended secondary schools in one of the largest cities in China. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test the direct and indirect effects of discrimination on delinquency. The results show that perceived discrimination reported by the students was positively related to delinquency through all three mediating mechanisms. This study suggests that strengthening social support may provide an effective strategy to reduce delinquency among migrant children in a short and intermediate term while ending discrimination represents a more long-term solution.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the theoretical efficiency of Hirschi’s reconceptualization of self-control in two groups of Chinese adolescents. The study also incorporates the well-established attitudinal scale from Grasmick et al. to examine whether there are any differences in the explanatory power between the two self-control scales among a comparison group of Chinese adolescents (N = 2,048). Structural equation modeling is applied to investigate the underlying theoretical structure of the self-control construct and the robustness of the scales across diverse samples. Our results provide evidence that Grasmick’s attitudinal scale has more explanatory power than that of Hirschi’s revised measure in predicting Chinese juvenile delinquency. Both measures show a better model fit in the offender sample than in the student counterparts. Our empirical test provides solid evidence for Grasmick’s attitudinal scale as a consistent predictor of Chinese juvenile delinquency compared with Hirschi’s revised measure. Theoretical and empirical directions for future research are discussed.

The concept of Low Self-Control (LSC) has been a major focus of criminological theories since the publication of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s work in 1990. Although there is an increasing amount of literature devoted to exploring the precise theoretical construct of LSC, no consensus has been reached on the factorial structure of Grasmick et al.’s LSC measures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factorial dimensionality of Grasmick et al.’s LSC measures in the Chinese setting. The data for this study come from three distinct samples collected in a Chinese province with a population of 47 million. The three samples represent high school students, troubled teens incarcerated in jail, and adjudicated juvenile offenders in prison in this province. Confirmatory factor analyses are utilized to conduct the factorial structure tests. Results provide strong support for a second-order or hierarchical model of LSC across the three groups. The key findings are discussed in terms of methodological, theoretical, and cultural dimensions.

Although the impacts of the school context on victimization in adolescents are well researched in Western societies, empirical testing of the contextual impacts are lacking in China. The present study examines both violent and property victimization in adolescents in the Chinese setting from a lifestyle/routine activity perspective using a multilevel approach. These data are collected from a sample of 3,628 high school students in a southern city of China. The results of a hierarchical logistic regression model reveal that school contextual variables including school type, level of bonding to school, and school history are significant predictors of violent victimization while student-staff ratio is significant in predicting property victimization in adolescents. At the student level, a higher level of perceived school disorder and delinquency with friends is related with higher odds of both violent and property victimizations; bonding to parents and schools tends to reduce the odds of both violent and property victimizations, net of demographic factors. The results lend support to lifestyle/routine activity theories. Implications of the findings are highlighted in the section “Discussion and Conclusion.”

Given the size of China’s juvenile population and the rapid social transformation in recent decades, researchers and policy makers are paying increased attention to juvenile justice–related issues. This article begins with an overview of the Chinese juvenile justice national data, followed by an in-depth discussion on the principles and mixed influences, and the unique juvenile justice process in China. Drawing upon the accumulated research on the subject matter, we highlight the most significant challenges such as rising crime among migrant youth, reforms within the criminal justice agencies, and issues of legitimacy facing the Chinese juvenile justice system today. Recommendations are made for future research and policy.