Crimes by laborers on the rise in Shanghai: report

10:40, January 09, 2010

The number of crimes committed by migrants in Shanghai has sharply increased during the past decade, caused mainly by their poor living conditions, Saturday's China Daily reported quoting a research study.

The findings were based on research conducted by the Minhang District People's Court on the district's crimes between 1997 and 2006.

The research found that the number of non-Shanghainese criminals in the district jumped from 697 in 2002 to 1,971 in 2006, said the newspaper.

The ratio of crimes committed by non-Shanghainese people rose from 74.79 percent in 2002 to 76.25 percent in 2006.

"Though the figures are only from the Minhang district, based on my knowledge and working experience, I think it does illustrate the situation of the entire city," Zhang Yue, one of the authors of the research report and a former staffer with the court, told the newspaper.

"The situation after 2006 is only getting worse. Last year, 80 to 90 percent of the crimes were committed by non-Shanghainese. I believe other district courts are experiencing the same thing," said Han Weiqing, chief judge of the criminal court of the Minhang District People's Court.

The crimes committed by non-Shanghainese are mainly property crimes such as burglary, theft and robbery, according to the research.

Most of the criminals are migrant workers younger than 35 with hardly any education. Many of them come from underdeveloped regions, the report said.

Reasons why migrants are more likely to commit crimes than local Shanghainese are that they do not share equal social benefits with the Shanghai residents, and they are sometimes less paid than the locals doing the same job, Professor Wu Yuhong with the department of criminal law at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, told the newspaper.

As Shanghai's economic development speeds up, more migrants from rural areas are flooding to the city to seek a better living. According to the Shanghai Statistic Bureau, nearly 4 million migrant workers now live in the city.

Source: Xinhua