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Xin Y and Cai T.

a series of zero-truncated Poisson models to explore the link between the socioeconomic characteristics at the province
level and the frequency of child trafficking.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive analyses and gender differences

Table 1 provides the descriptive statistics for the victims by gender. Among the victims, 61% were boys. The average age
of the victims was 1.38-year-old, and girls were slightly older by approximately two months (p < 0.10). About 80% of
the victims were sold by their guardian(s) with little difference by gender. Except for the cases that were detected during
the transaction or transport period, almost all children were adopted by their buyers. In terms of price, boys were sold at
an average of 46,430 yuan (approximately USD $6,800), which is 18,390 yuan (USD $2,650) higher than that of girls.
The highly significant difference (p < 0.001) underlines the high market value of boys, which coincides with the son
preference in China. However, it is worth mentioning that, due to substantial discrepancies on the level of socioeconomic
development across provinces, price might not be comparable and the inference may not be applicable to a broader
population. Among all cases, slightly more than half of the children (55%) were trafficked across provincial borders, only
23% of victims were found by the help of informants, and the rest were found by police investigation or connections to
other trafficking cases. Apparently, boy victims were 8% more likely to be reported or identified by informants (p < 0.01).
For each of the victims, there were multiple offenders. For example, on average, five offenders were involved in a single
trafficking case, with two or three of them being female.
It is worth noting that the majority of children were sold by their guardians (parents, grandparents, or other relatives),
and nearly all of the victims were adopted. This phenomenon is rooted in the unique legal regulations and practice of
adoption, in which private adoption agreements are not formally recognized. Although the law does not exclude private
parties, most of accepted adoption cases are from state-run orphanages. In practice, it is not easy to fulfill the legal
requirements for private adoptions, which fosters a market of selling and legalizing victims of child trafficking. For

Table 1. Descriptive analysis and gender difference between male and female victims
Variables Both sexes Females Males Sex difference
n Mean (SD) or % n Mean (SD) or % n Mean (SD) or %
Male children 851 61% 330 -- 521 -- --
Age (years) 846 1.38 (1.38) 320 1.50 (1.89) 518 1.31 (0.94) 0.19+
Guardian 496 80% 152 80% 339 81% −1%
Adoption purpose 676 99% 256 97% 416 100% −3%
Price ( RMB yuan) (*1,000) 801 39.34 (34.73) 302 28.04 (20.80) 494 46.43 (39.49) −18.39***
Reported to police 859 23% 330 18% 521 26% −8%**
Average # of offenders 859 4.93 (3.60) 330 5.06 (3.56) 521 4.86 (0.365) 0.20
Male offenders 810 56% 309 54% 493 57% 3%
Inter-provincial cases 565 55% 198 57% 363 54% 3%
Note: The p value is based on z/t test. SD: Standard deviation, +p<0.10; *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.

a b
Figure 1. Heat maps of origins and destinations of trafficking victims. (a) Origins of child trafficking. (b) Destinations of child
trafficking

International Journal of Population Studies | 2018, Volume 4, Issue 2 5