Parental Absence in Childhood and Migrants' Crime: Evidence from an Individual Prisoner Data in China

Date: December 19, 2017 

Time:13:30-15:00 p.m.

Venue: Meeting room 106B, Zhonghui Building

Speaker: Zhang Dan-dan, Peking University

ABOUT ZHANG DAN-DAN

Zhang Dan-dan is an assistant professor of Peking University National School of Development and a doctor of economics of The Australian National University. Prof. Zhang mainly focuses on labour economics, applied econometrics and experimental economics, including labor market during China’s transition period, economic and social impact of urban and rural labor mobility, influence of institution on the choice of human behavior and so on. In recent years, Dr. Zhang Dandan has begun to study the crime problem of migrant population and to collect data on crime in many prisons. At present, Dr. Zhang Dandan has published several articles on The Economic Journal and other international top economics journals.

ABSTRACT

Economic transition, along with sheer scale of rural-to-urban migration, has induced dramatic changes in Chinese family structure over the past three decades. A large cohort of migrant children became left-behind in rural villages, and their experience in growing up without parental care brought about important social issues. This paper examines whether parental absence in childhood is associated with migrants’ criminality in China, by using a unique survey and experimental data on prison inmates and their comparable non-inmates. We find that parental absence in childhood will increase the propensity of a male to commit crimes, although different reasons (i.e., left-behind or other reasons) for parental absence may drive criminality through different channels. Generally, being left-behind arouses risk-loving behaviors and deteriorates moral values, while parental absence due to other reasons reduces opportunity for education and thus forms poor personality. In addition, we also find that fathers' absence is more likely to induce son’s crime activities, while mothers’ absence may impose an impact through reducing education attainment. These findings provide useful insights for policy making to alleviate social costs related to the rural-to-urban migration.