A dataset of the crackdown on cross-border wildlife crimes in China, 2014-2020

<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Wildlife crimes </span><span>that involve</span><span> </span><span>s</span><span>muggling threaten national security and biodiversity, cause regional conflicts, and hinder economic development, especially in developing countries </span><span>with</span><span> </span><span>abundant</span><span> </span><span>wildlife</span><span> </span><span>resources</span><span>. </span><span>Over the past few decades</span><span>, significant headway has been made in combating </span><span>wildlife smuggling and the related illegal domestic trade</span><span> in China.</span><span> </span><span>Previous studies on </span><span>the </span><span>wildlife smuggling trade were mostly based on customs punishment and confiscation</span><span> data</span><span>. </span><span>From </span><span>the China Judgments Online </span><span>website, w</span><span>e retrieved</span><span> </span><span>cases related to cross-border wildlife and wildlife products</span><span> smuggling</span><span> <span>from 2014 </span></span><span>to </span><span>2020. </span><span>A total of</span><span> <span>5</span></span><span>10</span><span> <span>available cases and</span></span><span> 927</span><span> <span>records for more than </span></span><span>1</span><span>1</span><span>0</span><span> <span>species</span></span><span> </span><span>were</span><span> registered</span><span>. We thoroughly studied each judgment and ruling file to extract information on cases, defendants, species</span><span>,</span><span> <span>sentences</span></span><span>, and origins and destinations of wildlife and wildlife products</span><span>. Furthermore</span><span>, </span><span>frequency of </span><span><span>origin-destination</span></span><span> </span><span><span>place</span></span><span> occurrences </span><span><span>and</span></span><span> </span><span>spatial patterns of cross-border wildlife crime in China were shown in this data paper. </span><span>The main </span><span>purpose </span><span>of our dataset is to make these wildlife and wildlife products trade data accessible for researchers to develop </span><span>conservation</span><span> </span><span>studies. We expect that this dataset will be valuable for network analysis of regional or global wildlife trafficking, which has </span><span>attracted</span><span> </span><span>global</span><span> </span><span>attention</span><span>. There are no copyright restrictions on the data</span><span>;</span><span> </span><span>we ask that researchers</span><span> <span>please cite this paper and the associated dataset when using the data in publications.</span></span></p>