Child trafficking in China: Evidence from sentencing documents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18063/ijps.v4i2.817Keywords:
Child trafficking, China, gender difference, illegal adoptionAbstract
Child trafficking has long been internationally recognized as a serious crime. However, due to data scarcity and inconsistent definitions, the scope and nature of such criminal activity are not well understood in China. To fill this gap, this study aims to provide new evidence by digitizing and analyzing sentencing documents on child trafficking in China during 2014-2016. Taking advantage of web scraping techniques, all child trafficking cases were downloaded from the China Judgments Online website. Through geographic mapping and network analysis, we identified four geographic hotspots for trafficking—the central region (Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces), the east (Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces), the southeast (Guangdong and Fujian provinces) and the southwest (Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces)—and explored the connection between the hotspots and the gender of victims. We further examined the effect of provincial socioeconomic characteristics on the frequency of trafficking cases, and found that sex ratio at birth and the number of legal adoptions per thousand were positively correlated to the frequency of buying and selling children.
References
Chen, Y., Ebenstein, A., Edlund, L., & Li, H. (2015). Girl adoption in China—A less-known side of son preference. Population Studies, 69(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2015.1009253
Chu, C. Y.-Y. (2011). Human trafficking and smuggling in China. Journal of Contemporary China, 20(68), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2011.520842
Csárdi, G., & Nepusz, T. (2006). The igraph software package for complex network research. InterJournal Complex Systems, 1695, 1–9.
Gozdziak, E. M., & Collett, E. A. (2005). Research on human trafficking in north America: A review of literature. International Migration, 43(1–2), 99–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00314.x
Jiang, Q., & Sánchez-Barricarte, J. J. (2013). Child trafficking in china. China Report, 49(3), 317–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009445513502268
Johnson, K. (2002). Politics of international and domestic adoption in China. Law & Society Review, 36(2), 379–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/1512181
Johnson, K., Banghan, H., & Liyao, W. (1998). Infant abandonment and adoption in China. Population and Development Review, 24(3), 469–510. https://doi.org/10.2307/2808152
Kangaspunta, K. (2003). Mapping the inhuman trade: Preliminary findings of the database on trafficking in human beings (Vol. 3, pp. 81–103). Presented at the Forum on Crime and Society. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/forum/forum3.pdf#page=85
Larsen, J. J. (2011). The trafficking of children in the Asia-Pacific (Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice No. 415). Australian Institute of Criminology. Retrieved from http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/401-420/tandi415.html
Lee, J. J. (2005). Human trafficking in east Asia: Current trends, data collection, and knowledge gaps. International Migration, 43(1–2), 165–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00317.x
Li, C., Ren, R., & Zhang, X. (2013). Protections and policies on saved trafficked children in China. Journal of People’s Public Security University of China (Social Sciences Edition), (06), 16–25.
Li, G., Tan, R., Wang, H., Lin, Y., & Liang, Y. (2018). Spatio-temporal change and influencing factors of trafficking in children in China. Human Geography, (02 vo 33), 26–34.
Lid, J., Larsen, U., & Wyshak, G. (2004). Factors affecting adoption in China, 1950–87. Population Studies, 58(1), 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/0032472032000167698
Liebman, B. L., Roberts, M., Stern, R. E., & Wang, A. (2017). Mass digitization of Chinese court decisions: How to use text as data in the field of Chinese law (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 2985861). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2985861
Ling, B. (2016). Human trafficking and China: Challenges of domestic criminalisation and interpretation. Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, 17(1), 148–177. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718158-01701010
National Bureau of Statistical of China. (2017). Development of children in China (2011-2020).
Rafferty, Y. (2007). Children for sale: Child trafficking in Southeast Asia. Child Abuse Review, 16(6), 401–422. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.1009
Ren, X. (2004). Trafficking in children: China and Asian perspective. Presented at the Making Children’s Rights Work: National & International Perspectives International Bureau for Children’s Rights, Montreal, Canada. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.549.2780&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Shen, A. (2016). Female perpetrators in internal child trafficking in China: An empirical study. Journal of Human Trafficking, 2(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2016.1136537
Shen, A., Antonopoulos, G. A., & Papanicolaou, G. (2013). China’s stolen children: internal child trafficking in the People’s Republic of China. Trends in Organized Crime, 16(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-012-9167-z
Staiger, I. (2005). Trafficking in children for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the EU. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 13(4), 603–624. https://doi.org/10.1163/157181705774662553
Supreme People’s Court. (2013, November 21). The provisions of judgments on the Internet by the People’s Court.
Supreme People’s Court. (2016). The provisions of judgments on the Internet by the People’s Court.
Tao, L. (2017). Charateristics and preventions on child trafficking. Youth and Adolescent Studies, (05), 19–24.
Tyldum, G., & Brunovskis, A. (2005). Describing the unobserved: methodological challenges in empirical studies on human trafficking. International Migration, 43(1–2), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-7985.2005.00310.x
United Nations. (2000). The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Retrieved from Available: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_protocol.html
Wang, X. (2015). Child trafficking and policies: Empirical study on F province in China. Journal of People’s Public Security University of China (Social Sciences Edition), (05), 21–31.
Wang, H. (2017). Spatio-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of child trafficking in China (Master thesis). Northwest University, China.
Wang, Z., Wei, L., Peng, S., Deng, L., & Niu, B. (2018). Child-trafficking networks of illegal adoption in China. Nature Sustainability, 1(5), 254–260. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0065-5
Weitzer, R. (2014). New directions in research on human trafficking. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 653(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214521562
Wu, D. (2017). Research on spatial distribution and driving factors of child trafficking crime (Master thesis). Lanzhou Jiaotong University. Retrieved from http://gb.oversea.cnki.net/kcms/detail/detail.aspx?recid=&FileName=1017233659.nh&DbName=CMFD2018&DbCode=CMFD&uid=WEEvREcwSlJHSldRa1Fhb09jSnZqckwyZ21hRzJCRlhESy96Nk9uMEsxcz0=$9A4hF_YAuvQ5obgVAqNKPCYcEjKensW4IQMovwHtwkF4VYPoHbKxJw!!
Xie, Y. (2017). Recharts: An R interface to ECharts. Retrieved June 3, 2018, from https://github.com/yihui/recharts
Xing, H., Chen, R., & Xu, F. (2017). Developmental characteristics of child trafficking: Analysis on 447 judgement documents. Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Research, (01), 38–43.
Zhang, W. (2006). Who adopts girls and why? Domestic adoption of female children in contemporary rural China. The China Journal, 56, 63–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/20066186
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors contributing to International Journal of Population Studies agree to publish their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, that the work is not used for commercial purposes, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear. With this license, the authors hold the copyright without restrictions and are allowed to retain publishing rights without restrictions as long as the International Journal of Population Studies is the original publisher of the articles.
