Although modernization has brought a level of prosperity to China that could hardly have been imagined two decades ago, other by-products of rapid social change have proved less beneficial. It is argued that growing individualism, and a detachment from historical social responsibilities to the group, have had a negative impact on the ability of the community to self-regulate through informal control mechanisms. Prostitution and government responses to it are used to illustrate that informal control is weakening, if not failing for certain groups, at this juncture in China's history. The result is an excessive reliance on the less efficient and less reintegrative formal law process.
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