Child trafficking in China: Evidence from sentencing documents

Abstract

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.

Family-to-family child migration network of informal adoption in China

“…Therefore, after clarifying the concept of informal adoption, we used data from Chinese large-scale public welfare websites to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and network characteristics of informal adoption. We found that giving children up for adoption was included in child trafficking in previous studies (Wang et al, 2018;Cai and Xin, 2019), which ignored the diverse roles of birth families in these processes. Therefore, the differences between true human trafficking and informal adoption deserve further exploration.…”

“…In China, the traditional idea of sons supporting parents in their old age and a son preference (Das Gupta et al, 2003;Liu, 2014a) were expressed in informal adoption because birth families wanted to give girls away. For child trafficking, boys are favored by adopting families (Li et al, 2017a(Li et al, , 2017bCai and Xin, 2019;Huang and Weng, 2019). This indicates that the gender distribution of informal adoption is determined by suppliers, while in child trafficking, gender preference is driven by the demand side.…”

“…Child trafficking victims were frequently trafficked out of southwest China (Li et al, 2017a(Li et al, , 2017b. In addition, Sichuan (Li et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Cai and Xin, 2019;Huang and Weng, 2019), Jiangsu (Wang et al, 2018), and Henan (Li et al, 2018) were identified as common source provinces, while Henan, Hebei, and Shandong (Huang and Weng, 2019;Li et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Cai and Xin, 2019) were identified as target provinces of informal adoption and child trafficking. Overlapping provinces should pay more attention to the living conditions of children.…”

“…Therefore, the nature of informal adoption should be clarified. Some scholars believe that giving children up for adoptions that do not meet the requirements of the law should be regarded as illegal adoptions (Li, 2000), which is related to child trafficking (Wang et al, 2018;Cai and Xin, 2019). Some studies have revealed that most unregistered adoptions are informal adoptions.…”

“…Some researchers used questionnaires to understand the informal adoption process in specific areas or among specific groups in China (College, 2006;Li, 2000;Yang, 2004). Scholars have also used census data (Johansson and Nygren, 1991;Sten, 1995), judgment documents (Cai and Xin, 2019;Huang and Weng, 2019) and public welfare website data (Li et al, 2017a(Li et al, , 2017bLi et al, 2017aLi et al, , 2017bLi et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019) to analyze the characteristics of the irregular migration of Chinese children.…”