Why is the number of female criminals soaring in China?

Her long grey hair hanging down her back, Ding Yuxin wept in a Chinese courtroom last December. Following a one-day trial, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribing government officials.

去年12月，灰发垂背的丁羽心在法庭上哭起来。她因向政府官员行贿而被判处20年有期徒刑。

With only a primary school education, Ding Yuxin built an empire hinging on lucrative government coal and railway deals. Many were secured by greasing palms, netting Ding more than $325m (£207m: €290m) in contracts.

通过获得利润丰厚的政府煤炭和铁路合同，仅有小学文化程度的丁曾创建一个商业“帝国”，非法获利3.25亿美元。

She's a particularly flashy example of a new kind of Chinese prisoner: a woman put behind bars for a non-violent crime. It's an unlikely symbol of how China is changing.

在中国，她是一种新型囚犯的浮华代表：因参与非暴力犯罪而身陷囹圄的女性。说不定，这也是中国正如何变化的象征之一。

Overall, the number of women held in Chinese prisons is soaring, up 46% in the last decade. That is in contrast to a 10% rise in the number of male prisoners, says Dui Hua, a US-based prisoners rights organisation. Women comprise just 6.3% of China's prison population. If trends continue, within five years, China will imprison more women than the United States, home to the world's largest prison population.
总部位于美国的囚犯权益组织“对话”表示，从整体上看，中国关押的女囚犯数量正呈激增态势，过去10年来骤增46%。相比之下，男囚犯的数量仅增长10%。目前，女性只占中国囚犯总数的6.3%。但若以 这种趋势发展下去，未来5年内，中国女囚数量就将超过世界上收押囚犯最多的美国。

A major reason is that China is undergoing transition. In the past few years, we've seen an increase in non-violent crimes involving women such as drug trafficking and telecommunication fraud.
中国的女囚为何正迅速增多？一个主要原因是中国正经历转型期。近年来，涉及女性的毒品走私和电信诈骗等非暴力罪行日渐增多。

China's anti-corruption campaign is having an effect on prison populations too. More women are also being convicted of taking bribes, because the number of women working in the Chinese government has also gone up. " In the past, a lot of women in prison were victims of domestic violence and had committed crimes in relation to that," Dr Cheng says. "But that figure has stabilised."

中国的反腐行动亦在影响囚犯的人员构成。鉴于中国的女公务员人数与日俱增，更多女性因受贿罪被判刑。二是暴力犯罪与女囚犯增多无关。“过去，许多女囚犯是家庭暴力的受害者并因此而犯下罪行”，中国人民大学诉讼制度与司法改革研究中心副主任程雷说，“但该数字已经稳定。”