An estimated 80,000 youngsters would commit crimes this year, up from 33,000 in 1998, the China Daily said, adding that as the number of young offenders had grown, their average age had fallen.

"Offenders' average ages have become younger, and they are committing new types of crime and forming larger gangs," the newspaper quoted Liu Guiming, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Society of Juvenile Delinquency, as telling a seminar in Beijing.

"They even commit crimes without specific motives, often without thought."

The types of crimes committed by juveniles -- defined in China as youths aged between 14 and 18 -- ranged from robbery to intentional injury and rape, the paper said.

Broken homes seemed to be the main factor behind the explosion in youth delinquency, it said, quoting Beijing's Haidian District Court as saying 59 percent of underage criminals came from broken families and had often experienced domestic violence.

A major cause of concern is the growing number of migrant workers -- numbering anywhere between 100 million and 200 million -- who leave their rural homes to seek work in the cities.

Their children are often left behind, poorly supervised and run an especially large risk of falling into crime, according to the paper.

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