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British Journal of Criminology Advance Access originally published online on May 3, 2005
British Journal of Criminology 2005 45(5):613-633; doi:10.1093/bjc/azi044
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The British Journal of Criminology 45:613-633 (2005)
© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Crime Patterns During the Market Transition in China

Jianhong Liu*

* Gratitude is expressed to Steven F. Messner for his helpful comments on the article. Please direct correspondence to Jianhong Liu, Department of Sociology, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908, USA; email: afs101{at}etal.uri.edu.

A sizable literature on crime patterns during periods of social change and modernization has been developed. A number of theories have been proposed to explain variations in crime levels; these theories have largely been rooted in the classical Durkheimian theory of anomie. Most empirical studies of crime patterns examine levels of violent and property crimes and link variations in the levels of these crimes to indicators of social change and modernization using cross-national data. Moving beyond the conventional focus on levels of violent and property crimes, the present study focuses on whether rates of economically motivated crimes (e.g. larceny, grand larceny, robbery and fraud) increased faster than less or non-economically motivated crimes (e.g. homicide, assault and rape) during the period of social change from state socialism to a market economy in China. The study finds that economically motivated crimes have increased faster than less or non-economically motivated crimes. The paper is in favour of a structural explanation that expanding economic motivation is a driving force for economically motivated crimes during the transition to a market economy in China. This explanation is more consistent with the patterns of crime found than conventional anomie-based explanations in their accounting for the crime patterns.


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