TEXTO:
Over the years, China’s one-child policy has been
tied to a range of social ills, such as rising prostitution
and delayed marriage. Now it may be producing
yet another ugly side effect: a spike in crime. Even
[5] as rates have dropped in most Western countries,
official statistics show that China is becoming a more
dangerous place, with murder, robbery, and rape rates
now surpassing those in many European countries.
Blame men. In January the Chinese Academy of
[10] Social Sciences found that the male-female birth ratio
in China has hit 119 males to 100 females, a new high,
and reaches 130:100 in some provinces. (That’s 10 to
20 percent higher than the average for industrialized
countries.) Some experts link this gap to the surge in
[15] violence. In an April 2009 paper, Columbia University’s
Lena Edlund suggested that the sex gap accounts for
up to one sixth of China’s crime increase between
1988 and 2004. Edlund points the finger at lower
marriage rates, noting that unmarried men are a
[20] destabilizing factor in society.
Not everyone agrees that the gender gap is a
bad thing; a Columbia Business School study says it
encourages families to save cash to better position
sons in the spouse hunt. This increase in savings may
[25] serve to improve social stability and balance the sex
gap’s negative aspects. The crime increase has also
been attributed to the country’s growing underclass
of migrant workers, and it’s often unclear where the
pressures of work and courtship intersect to drive men
[30] to crime. But as China rises, it may unfortunately find
it’s overtaking the U.S. in crime as well.
FISH, Isaac Stone. China’s sex factor. Newsweek, New York, March 1, 2010 p. 9.
The expression “such as” (l. 2) introduces
