Social problems and crime in rural China: An analysis of the communal period and reform period

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine social change in a village in northern China, more, specifically, the effects of the initiation of economic reform in the commune period (1953- 1983) compared with effects in the reform period ( 1983-- present). China is still a rural country 1with 80% of the Chinese people living in the countryside. It is here that the problems of the new reform have had theilr most profound influence. Findings from my fieldwork indicate tlhat the earlier community solidarity and social cohesion engendered by communal social organization have been dimimished by reform policies. The more competitive, money-makingr ethos of reform has led to an expansion of crime and social wroblems. A discussion of specific crime and social. problems in one Chinese village is used as evidence to demonstrate the case. My data show that the introduction of capitalism in the Chinese countryside has led to a fundamental weakening of social security and to increasing social malintegration. Moreover, the typicalty of this village indicates that the problems found there are prominent in a wider rural context.