Structural Inequality and Juvenile Delinquency: A Marxist Class Analysis of the Institutional Mechanisms of Youth Crime

Povzetek

Amid China’s ongoing market reforms and intensifying class stratification, juvenile delinquency has emerged not merely as a moral or behavioral concern but as a structurally embedded outcome of institutional exclusion. This study adopts a Marxist class analysis, enriched by critical criminology, to examine how entrenched inequalities in education, labor markets, governance, and ideological discourse interact to criminalize marginalized youth. Drawing on 2025 national statistics, judicial reports, and media content analysis, the research reveals that rural, migrant, and vocational-track youth remain systematically excluded from opportunity structures while being disproportionately subjected to punitive interventions. Theoretically, the study challenges prevailing individual-centered approaches in youth crime research, advancing instead a structural framework that situates delinquency within broader processes of class reproduction and symbolic violence. It highlights how dominant ideological narratives deflect attention from systemic culpability by recasting structural failure as personal deviance. Empirically, the paper documents the persistence of selective enforcement, disciplinary governance, and stigmatizing media portrayals, despite modest gains in prosecutorial discretion and educational access. Policy recommendations urge a shift beyond reactive or punitive models toward structural solutions grounded in redistributive justice, inclusive institutional reform, and narrative de-stigmatization. The findings underscore that juvenile delinquency cannot be meaningfully addressed without confronting the deeper architecture of social inequality shaping the lived realities and constrained choices of youth in contemporary China.