My Take | Will China’s plans to tackle plight of left behind children prove effective?
- A recent case involving the murder of a 13-year-old boy has highlighted the problems facing children whose parents leave their rural homes to look for work
- Studies have previously found that such children are both more likely to commit crimes but are also at increased risk of becoming victims of crimes
The news from Hebei province again brought to the forefront the long-standing problem of left behind children in rural China when one or both of their parents move to big cities to look for work.
Due to the lack of parental care, these children face many problems including health, education, psychological, and behavioral issues.
Academic studies have shown that these children have a higher chance of either committing crimes or becoming the victims or criminal acts and abuses.
One paper, co-authored by Peking University researcher Zhang Dandan along with Lisa Cameron from University of Melbourne and Xin Meng from Australian National University and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation in 2022, drew such a conclusion.
The paper, titled “Does being left behind in childhood lead to criminality in adulthood?”, is based on a 2013 survey which compared the backgrounds of about 1,000 male prison inmates.