Structural Strain, Family Control, and Delinquency: A Qualitative Analysis of Juvenile Offenders Affected by China’s Rural-to-Urban Migration

According to official statistics, children in China affected by migration, including migrant and left-behind children, commit a disproportionately high number of reported crimes. Scholars have generally believed that the rural-urban inequality, coupled with the rural-urban migration, have placed these children in a structurally disadvantaged position which increases the likelihood of them becoming delinquents. It is still not clearly understood, however, how this structural disadvantage places children affected by migration at a high risk of delinquency through weakening the level of family control. This is the issue that the study seeks to address. Qualitatively analyzing the narratives of 59 juvenile offenders from migrant families in China, the study found that the rural-urban inequality and the resultant rural-urban migration contributed to the structural family strains, mainly in the form of family poverty or dissolution, which had a negative effect on parental efficacy. Weakened parental efficacy then facilitated adolescents’ rebellion against parents, with delinquency serving as an important form. Through the act of rebellion, adolescents transferred blame to parents by limiting their own responsibility for their actions, thereby realizing the neutralization of delinquency. The findings suggest that, in order to prevent delinquency among migrant and left-behind children, intervention only at family level or in individual systems is insufficient. Policies are required at a structural level to effectively address the issue.