More Men, More Crime: Evidence from China’s One-Child Policy / Institute for the Study of Labor, December 2007
PDF - http://ftp.iza.org/dp3214.pdf
Lena Edlund ; Hongbin Li ; Junjian Yi ; Junsen Zhang
IZA Discussion Paper No. 3214
"Crime rates almost doubled in China between 1992 and 2004. Over the same period, sex ratios in the crime-prone ages of 16-25 years rose sharply. Although scarcity of females is commonly believed to be a source of male antisocial behaviour, a causal link has been difficult to establish. This paper exploits two unique features of the Chinese experience: the change in the sex ratio was both large and mainly in response to the implementation of the one-child policy. We find that a 0.01 increase in the sex ratio raised the violent and property crime rates by some 5-6%, suggesting that the increasing maleness of the young adult population may account for as much as a third of the overall rise in crime."