Ying Yong, chief procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said in a recent investigation at the grassroots level that it is necessary to attach great importance to the prevention and management of juvenile crimes, and that serious crimes such as intentional homicide, intentional injury, and death committed by juveniles should be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law if they meet the requirements for approval of prosecution.
"Approval for prosecution" responds to social concerns caused by vicious crimes committed by young minors, and the age of criminal responsibility has once again become a hot topic. Some criminal law experts have suggested the introduction of the rule of "maliciously making up the age", that is, "if there is evidence to prove that a minor minor who has not reached the lower age limit of criminal responsibility commits a crime out of malice and is able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, he shall be presumed to have the capacity for criminal responsibility and be investigated for criminal responsibility." ”
According to this reporter's understanding, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is promoting the establishment of a hierarchical intervention mechanism for juvenile offenders, and is lawfully employing hierarchical and categorical intervention measures such as ordering strict discipline, admonishment, special education, and special correctional education.
Minors involved in crimes are tolerated and not connived
"Approval of prosecution" responds to social concerns
On March 1, 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference, at which Gong Ming, Deputy Procurator General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, introduced that juvenile crime is on the rise in the overall situation across the country. In 2023, the procuratorate will accept, review, and prosecute 97,000 juvenile offenders, of which about 10,000 are juveniles under the age of 16.
Gong Ming said that for juveniles who have committed serious crimes, are of a heinous nature, and do not want to repent, they will be punished in accordance with the law, and 27,000 people will be arrested and 39,000 people will be prosecuted. For juveniles who have committed relatively minor crimes or who have committed occasional offenses for the first time, they will be lenient, and 38,000 people will not be arrested and 40,000 people will not be prosecuted.
"The age of juvenile delinquency is getting younger and younger, and the trend of younger age of crime is becoming more and more prominent. The subjective viciousness of some juvenile crimes is also increasing, and the methods used are cruel, seriously endangering social stability and the safety of citizens' lives and property. Xiao Shengfang, president of the Guangdong Lawyers Association, said that if he cannot be held criminally responsible because he has not reached the legal age of criminal responsibility, such punishment is extremely unfair to the victim, and cannot achieve the role of appeasing the victim and his family, and at the same time will call into question the fairness and authority of the law, thus losing the warning function and deterrent effect of the law.
"'Approval of prosecution' is a system established by Amendment (11) to the Criminal Law. Xiao Shengfang said that the conditional lowering of the age of criminal responsibility provides a way to deal with cases of serious harm committed by minors between the ages of 12 and 14.
Xiao Shengfang said that the mainland criminal law stipulates that the death penalty is not applicable to juvenile crimes, and criminal responsibility can be pursued with the approval of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Borrow from the "malicious make-up age" rule
Punish juvenile delinquency
The age of criminal responsibility is once again in the spotlight. Previously, in the case of a boy under the age of 12 who killed a 4-year-old girl in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, the case was withdrawn by the public security department because the boy was under the age of 12 at the time of the crime and did not meet the age of criminal responsibility stipulated in the Criminal Law.
Peng Xinlin, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University and director of the China Society of Criminal Procedure Law, said that the mainland's legislation on the age of criminal responsibility for juveniles, especially the adoption of a "one-size-fits-all" rigid standard for the lower age of criminal responsibility, can hardly meet the practical needs of effective management of juvenile crimes.
He said that in fact, when many young minors commit specific vicious violent crimes such as intentional homicide, they objectively already have the ability to distinguish and control their own behavior in the sense of the criminal law, but the criminal law classifies them into the age stage of complete criminal responsibility, and it is presumed that they do not have the capacity for criminal responsibility. If we do not take into account the situation in practice where the subjective malice is great, intentional or even maliciously taking advantage of the lower age limit of criminal responsibility to commit vicious violent crimes, then only general justice is pursued, and individual (case) justice is ignored.
"With regard to the punishment of serious juvenile crimes, the experience of the rule of law in foreign countries on the lower age of criminal responsibility can be learned. Peng Xinlin introduced, for example, the United States and other common law countries for the judgment of whether a young minor has the capacity for criminal responsibility to commit a crime, generally follow the rule of "maliciously make up the age", "that is, if there is evidence to prove that a young juvenile who has not reached the lower age limit of criminal responsibility, when committing a crime out of malice, can distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, then it should be presumed that he has the capacity for criminal responsibility to pursue criminal responsibility." ”
This year, it is planned to introduce a hierarchical intervention mechanism for juveniles who have committed crimes
Family education is the most important part of the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Zheng Ziyin, a senior partner of Guangdong Nuochen Law Firm and vice president of the Guangdong Provincial Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Research Association, once undertook a legal aid case, the defendant Wei Moumu dropped out of school in the second grade, continued to commit crimes after the age of 10, and stabbed a 6-year-old girl again after reaching the age of 14, and pulled her to the pond to drown her, and was sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempted intentional homicide, and was released after serving 4 years and 10 months.
Less than two months after his release from prison, he committed another crime and was sentenced to death. Zheng Ziyin told reporters that Wei Moumu said that the 5 years when his mother was there were the happiest 5 years in his life, and his mother did not come back after the age of 5, and his father did not care about him.
Before the sentencing, Zheng Ziyin called Wei's father, hoping to compensate the victim and fight for a reprieve in death. "Wei's father refused, saying, 'When I didn't give birth to this child'. ”
Zheng Ziyin pointed out that from this example, it can be seen that before Wei Moumu committed the crime, the involvement of family, school, society, and justice was not enough, and the responsibility of parents was very great. From another point of view, he is also a "victim" whose parents failed to fulfill their responsibilities, the school did not implement measures to control dropouts and protect students, and the relevant departments did not perform their duties in accordance with the law and lacked corrective intervention.
"Judging from the data of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the number of juvenile delinquents is on the rise. Zheng Ziyin believes that critical prevention work needs to be improved. Critical prevention refers to intervening and correcting juvenile delinquencies that have not yet constituted a crime, so as to avoid the development of crimes. "Critical prevention is divided into bad behavior intervention and severe bad behavior correction. Zheng Ziyin said that bad behavior can be intervened through families, communities, and schools performing their respective duties and cooperating with each other; serious bad behavior is a public security violation and is not subject to criminal punishment, and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency sets up three measures for this purpose: correctional education, specialized education, and special correctional education.
At present, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is promoting the establishment of a hierarchical intervention mechanism for juvenile offenders. Gong Ming, deputy procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that in order to effectively prevent and correct juvenile criminal and misdelict behavior, the Supreme People's Procuratorate is studying and formulating the "Opinions on Strengthening Graded Intervention and Correction of Juvenile Criminal and Misdemeanor Behavior", and according to the severity of juvenile behavior, psychological abnormality, daily performance, etc., it is necessary to adopt hierarchical and categorical intervention measures such as ordering strict discipline, admonishment, special education, and special correctional education, and this year it is planned to jointly introduce it with relevant functional departments.
Since 2022, Guangzhou has carried out more than 1,000 crime prevention sessions for juvenile delinquents
In Guangzhou, 164 procurators have come to campuses to serve as vice-principals and lecturers on the rule of law. March is the beginning of the new semester, and the activity of "Rule of Law on Campus and the First Lesson of School" was launched in many primary and secondary schools. With the help of the content of the movie "Article 20", the Huadu District Procuratorate used real cases to clarify the boundaries of legitimate defense for the students, and the Baiyun District Procuratorate helped the students to judge and respond to "bullying......
In addition to popularizing the law, procurators also carry out research through a combination of "access to case files + on-site visits" to analyze the causes of the frequent occurrence of cases involving minors, and to find out the blind spots and loopholes in the field of social governance. Internet, hotels, entertainment venues, rental houses, campus perimeter ...... In response to the problems discovered in the investigation and handling of cases, the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate comprehensively promoted social governance. Thanks to the efforts of the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate, in 2023, the number of people prosecuted by the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate for crimes against minors decreased by 11% year-on-year.
According to statistics, at present, the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate has relied on the procuratorial and police coordination mechanism to intervene in advance to guide the investigation of more than 1,000 cases involving minors, and has carried out coordinated protection and rescue of more than 1,000 minor victims.
Since 2022, the Guangzhou procuratorate has carried out more than 1,000 crime prevention for juvenile offenders through social care and psychological correction.
background
Amendment (11) to the Criminal Law states that "age reduction" for minors is no longer a gold medal for exemption from liability
On October 20, 2019, Cai Moumou killed a 10-year-old girl, Wang, and threw her body into the bushes. Because Cai Moumou did not reach the legal age of criminal responsibility, the police did not pursue criminal responsibility in accordance with the law, and gave him 3 years of custody and reeducation. This result has sparked public debate about whether the age of criminal responsibility should be lowered.
At the 2020 National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, Xiao Shengfang, a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress and president of the Guangdong Lawyers Association, submitted a proposal to amend paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 17 of the Criminal Law in the form of amendments, adjusting the starting point for the age of criminal responsibility for juveniles from the original 14 years old to 13 years old. This is not the first time that the two sessions have proposed "age reduction". In 2019, 30 deputies to the National People's Congress, including Liu Xiya, a deputy to the National People's Congress and principal of Xiejiawan Primary School in Chongqing, jointly proposed to lower the lower age of criminal responsibility for minors stipulated in the Criminal Law of the mainland to 12 years old; In 2018, Wang Gang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Xinyi Group, proposed to amend the Law on the Protection of Minors, lower the age of criminal responsibility, and increase the punishment of school violence; Gao Guangsheng, director of the geriatrics department of the Fourth Hospital of Harbin, suggested that the age of criminal responsibility be lowered and the age of legal responsibility should be changed from 14 to 12.
Luo Xiang, a professor at the School of Criminal Justice at China University of Political Science and Law, said in a previous interview that he advocated lowering the age of criminal responsibility. "The proposal to abolish the age of criminal responsibility may be difficult to accept, but it is possible to reduce the age of criminal responsibility to at least 12 years. Luo Xiang said that twelve-year-old children already have a basic understanding of right and wrong, and it is difficult to say that they do not know that killing is a serious crime. Criminal law must be adapted to the practical needs of social life.
Respond to the concerns of the people and social hot issues. On December 26, 2020, the 11th Amendment to the Criminal Law was deliberated and passed by the 24th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress. Amendment (11) to the Criminal Law lowers the age of responsibility for some criminal offenses, clearly stipulating that "a person who has reached the age of 12 but is not yet 14 years old and commits the crime of intentional homicide or intentional injury, causing death or causing serious injury to a person by particularly cruel means, causing serious disability, and the circumstances are heinous, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate approves the prosecution to be prosecuted, shall bear criminal responsibility." ”
A relevant responsible person of the Supreme People's Court said that this provision fully embodies the spirit of scientific and rational legislation, and is an implementation of the policy of "blending leniency and severity"; it not only "opens its mouth" on the issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility, but also strictly controls the scope of application, and is in harmony with the mainland's consistent policy of "education, reform, and rescue" for juvenile crimes.
Source: Guangzhou Daily Reporter: Wei Lina, Charter, Li Bin