Criminal cases committed by migrant teenagers grew rapidly in the past two years and now account for a majority of Shanghai's juvenile delinquency, officials said yesterday.

Among the 844 teenagers convicted this year and detained at Shanghai Juvenile Reformatory, 70 percent were from other provinces or regions in the country. That compared to 40 percent in 2004.

The percentage of Shanghai-native juvenile delinquents, however, dropped from 60 percent in 2004 to 30 percent now, reformatory officials said.

During the same two years, the city's migrant population grew from 3.8 million to 5.6 million, a 47 percent increase.

"We noticed juvenile delinquency was rising in recent years," said Hong Yongqiang, the reformatory director. He also said that cases involving migrant youngsters increases about 10 percent each year.

About 60 percent of total juvenile convicts were jailed for either robbery, theft, assault or rape. Most of the young convicts not native to Shanghai come from either Anhui, Jiangsu or Sichuan provinces, reformatory officials said.

Xu Jian, professor with East China University of Politics and Law, said that the high mobility and loose community relationship within that segment of the population may cause minors to commit crimes.

He suggested the city provide legal education in migrant schools and set up some special institutes for migrant teenagers who don't attend school.

(Shanghai Daily August 10, 2006)