Fewer female criminals: Report

By WANG YAN (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-11 10:31

The number of female criminals has dropped continually since 2007 in Chaoyang district, according to recent research by the district court.

The research was conducted ahead of Women's Day, which fell on Tuesday. It looked into the total 2,500 female criminal cases accepted by the court between 2007 and 2009.

The report was released by the Chaoyang district court on Monday. However, the department that conducted the research could not be reached for comment.

"The three years saw similar numbers of total crime cases, but the percentage of female crimes has dropped year by year, from 37.2 percent in 2007 to 23.7 percent in 2008, and then 19.2 percent in 2009," the report stated.

This means the total number of female criminal cases in 2009 is less then half of what it was in 2007.

Female cases fall into just a few concentrated categories, which include theft, fraud, prostitution and the spread of illegal invoices, the report noted.

"Most cases are non-violent," it stated.

Female criminals were said to have more apologetic attitudes about their misconducts after capture. They were also believed to be more likely to receive forgiveness from their victims.

The percentage of initiative payments for fines given to female criminals was 13.1 percent higher than the overall statistics.

Qiu Baochang, a lawyer in Beijing, said the reasons for such phenomenon were better protection over women's rights.

"There are fewer female-related violent crime cases in recent years. In the past, I often saw revenge murders conducted by women, especially in rural areas. The criminals usually took extreme actions after receiving domestic abuse," Qiu told METRO Wednesday.

"Now that women receive more care and protection, less violent cases emerge," he said.

He suggested more attention be paid to crimes where females are more likely to get involved.

"Children-trafficking, for example, involves more female criminals as they're more likely to get the victims' trust," he said.

The report stated that 65 percent of the report's female criminals were born in the 1980s and 1990s; over 90 percent were non-locals; and 88.3 percent did not have higher education.

But Qiu said such statistics could not represent the entire city.

"Chaoyang district has a large number of migrants, so the high percentages are not surprising," he said.