In recent years, due to a
number of notorious sex offense cases against minors, a new punitive public
attitude emerged in China and pressed for harsher crackdown and punishment
against sex offenders. In particular, an "engagement in prostitution with
a minor" law (Article 360 of the Criminal Law) was targeted as
"unjust" based on the belief that offenders of such crimes often
received "lenient" punishment, and many called for its abolition.
In
this study, based on 440 adjudicated sex offense cases, we examine potential
differences across three sex offenses (including rape, child molestation, and
engagement in prostitution with a minor) in the demographics of defendants and
victims, offending characteristics, and trials and sentences of convicted
offenders. Our empirical inquiry pointed to the unique nature of engagement in
prostitution with a minor. Offenders of such crimes seemingly carried a
different profile, compared with offenders of the other two sex crimes.
Moreover, our data casted some doubt on the "lenient" punishment
received by offenders of engagement in prostitution with a minor. Policy
implications were also drawn based on our findings.
Purchase full article at:
- 1Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
- 2Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, USA bin.liang@okstate.edu.
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