Rural Migrants and Disorderly Behaviors in Contemporary Urban China

• In Event: ACCCJ Migration, Crime and Fear of Crime in China and the U.S.

Abstract

China has been experiencing a massive population movement from rural to urban areas since the nation implemented economic reform in 1980s. The rural migrants are commonly assumed as a major source of disorderly behaviors, especially criminal behaviors in urban China. Limited studies have shown inconsistent findings for the common assumption. The present study aims to explore further the potential link of rural migrants with disorderly behaviors. The exploration is conducted using data collected from a sample of 956 inmates incarcerated in prisons of the Zhejiang province, China in 2014. Our bivariate analyses indicate that rural migrant status does not have any significant impact on the common forms of criminal activities. In contrast, the status is likely to have significant, positive effects on domestic violence, drunkenness, and suicide attempt. When controlling for the potential effects of other important demographic and contextual variables, it appears that urban residents are more likely to engage in criminal activities than rural migrants, and the initial effects of rural migrant status on domestic violence and drunkenness are no longer significant. Our further analyses show that rural migrant status has significant interactive effects with several important contextual variables on criminal activities.

Authors

• Lening Zhang, Saint Francis University

• Jianhong Liu, The University of Macau