Recently, the discussion on the criminal responsibility of minors under the age of 12 and under the age of 14 for homicide and serious injury has aroused widespread concern. So far, the people's courts have concluded a total of 4 such cases, and the perpetrators are between the ages of 12 and 13 and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in accordance with the law.
The Supreme People's Court today (16 April) released the situation of cases involving women and children. The situation of juvenile delinquency is still grim, and the problem of school violence cannot be ignored. From 2021 to 2023, the people's courts concluded a total of 73,178 juvenile delinquency cases and sentenced 98,426 juvenile offenders, accounting for 2% to 2.5% of all criminal offenders in the same period.
Crimes against women and children are on the rise, and the problem of sexual abuse of women and children cannot be ignored. From 2002 to 2023, courts at all levels across the country concluded 27,610 cases of abduction and trafficking of women and children, sentenced 44,056 criminals to prison sentences and sentenced 26,763 to fixed-term imprisonment of more than five years, with a heavy sentence rate of 61 percent, and concluded 511,000 rape cases, sentenced 508,000 criminals to criminal punishment, and sentenced 187,000 to fixed-term imprisonment of more than five years, with a heavy sentence rate of 37 percent, both of which are much higher than the application rate of nearly 15 percent for ordinary crimes. 57,050 cases of forcible indecency and humiliation of women were concluded, and 56,297 criminals were sentenced, and 73,923 cases of child molestation were concluded, and 66,945 criminals were sentenced. In 2023, courts across the country will conclude 41,000 cases of crimes against minors and 61,000 people, of which the number of sexual assault cases is on the rise, and minors are seriously violated by family members. In some cases, minors have been sexually abused for a long time by family members.
The problem of cybercrime is prominent, and the erosion of bad information on the Internet cannot be ignored. Nearly 60 percent of juveniles who commit crimes of robbery, theft, or violent harm have been addicted to the Internet for a long time, and the proportion of juveniles who are influenced by negative information on the Internet and have a relatively high motive for committing crimes. Sample statistics show that nearly one-third of the sexual assault cases against minors tried in recent years were online "indecent assault" or offline rape of the victim after getting acquainted with each other through online chat tools. Some anchors and Internet celebrities specifically target middle-aged and elderly women, taking advantage of their characteristics and "weakness" of longing to be noticed and loved, but not understanding the online platform, to ask them for money after a period of time, or induce them to give rewards and recharge, causing both psychological and economic losses.
The problem of lack of family guardianship is prominent, and the impact of family care on juvenile delinquency cannot be ignored. Judicial big data shows that from 2021 to 2023, among the cases of violence involving minors concluded by courts in the first instance across the country, there were 1,835 cases in which the defendant was a left-behind child, accounting for 22.94%, 556 cases in which the defendant was a single-parent family, accounting for 6.95%, 223 cases in which the defendant was a remarried family, accounting for 2.79%, and 19 cases in which the defendant was an orphan, accounting for 0.24%. Some parents neglect to care about the physical and psychological confusion encountered by their children in the process of growth. For example, a high school student felt too stressed and did not get the help he deserved after telling his parents. The high school student went to the hospital for examination and was diagnosed with major depression, and the parents actually thought that the child was faking illness, and the high school student was preparing to commit suicide after killing someone, and the parents realized the seriousness of the problem.
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Treat both the symptoms and the root causes to solve new situations and new problems
The healthy development of women's and children's causes, especially the protection of children's rights and interests, has its own special internal laws and characteristics. In response to the problem of juvenile crime, it is necessary to treat both the symptoms and the root causes, and to punish and prevent them at the same time. The people's courts persist in implementing the principle of "education, reform, and rescue" and the principle of "education first, punishment secondary" for juvenile crimes, and actively adopt trial methods suited to the physical and psychological characteristics of juveniles, emphasizing that trials should not only be a public court for punishment and punishment of delinquent juveniles, but should also serve as a classroom for rescue education. In terms of punishment, adhere to the principle of "tolerance but not connivance", and for those whose subjective malice is deep, the harm is serious, and especially those who refuse to change after repeated teachings, they should be punished in accordance with law, giving play to the role of warning and education, and returning fairness to the victims and showing fairness to society. Recently, the discussion on pursuing criminal responsibility for homicide and serious injury of minors between the ages of 12 and 14 has attracted widespread attention. So far, the people's courts have concluded a total of 4 such cases, and the perpetrators are between the ages of 12 and 13 and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in accordance with the law. The appearance of problematic children is due to both family and social reasons, and is the result of a combination of factors. In this regard, when hearing cases such as marriage and family affairs, and tort rights, attention should be paid to strengthening guardianship responsibilities and education and guidance efforts, and guiding parents to perform guardianship duties in accordance with law. In addition, the education and correction procedures for "problem juveniles" have been blurred, resulting in a large number of juveniles who have violated the law and are in a state where no one is powerless to supervise and the correction fails, so that they often repeatedly commit illegal acts, which eventually lead to evil consequences and constitute crimes. For example, in a case in a certain place, the defendant was administratively detained by the public security organs five times, but none of them were actually executed. It is necessary to change as soon as possible the weak strength of specialized correctional institutions for young minors, speed up the construction of specialized schools, and gradually promote the establishment of an independent juvenile justice system, so that minors who have committed acts that seriously endanger society but have not yet constituted criminal offenses can receive the correctional education they deserve.
In response to current problems that affect the healthy growth of minors, do a solid job of grasping the front end and treating diseases before they occur. Problems discovered in the trial of cases involving juveniles that might induce juvenile crime or infringement must not be left unattended, but must be traced back to the source, thoroughly investigated, and where there are loopholes, blind spots, or ineffective implementation of the "six major protections", efforts should be made to promote resolution based on the judicial adjudication function. Reduce the risk of sexual abuse of minors at the source. Guide all levels of court to earnestly implement judicial interpretations on handling criminal cases of rape and indecency with minors, opinions on criminal cases of sexual violations against minors, and so forth, strengthen research on relevant issues, and lawfully crack down on new types of violations and crimes such as the use of the internet to harm minors. In 2023, courts across the country sentenced defendants to life bars from engaging in work in close contact with minors in the first instance of 1,106 cases, including 754 defendants in educational institutions such as schools and kindergartens, 358 defendants in off-campus training institutions, and a total of 1,112 defendants. Promote the implementation of management and control responsibilities for special business sites. The sample data shows that juveniles who hang out in entertainment venues for a long time are more likely to commit crimes or be abused. In 2023, courts across the country will accept 1,205 cases of organizing minors to carry out activities against the administration of public security, an increase of 5.28 times compared with 2020. Among them, the vast majority of minors are organized to engage in paid escorts in bars and song halls, reflecting that the violations of the Law on the Protection of Minors in relevant business establishments have not been effectively supervised and promptly investigated. The Heilongjiang People's Court combed through 92 rape cases that occurred in hotels, guesthouses, inns and other accommodation establishments and found that some business establishments did not strictly implement the Law on the Protection of Minors, the Measures for the Administration of Public Security in the Hotel Industry, and other relevant provisions, and there were management loopholes such as the illegal accommodation of minors and the lax registration review. Deal with school bullying strictly and early. Many cases reflect the failure of schools to detect, prevent and intervene in a timely manner when there is school bullying or when students are tired of school, skipping school, making bad friends, etc., resulting in students slipping into crime or being violated. In this regard, where it is discovered in the trial of all types of cases that there is a problem of school bullying, it is necessary to actively coordinate and handle it to avoid developing into a malignant case, and actively link up with families, schools, society, and the government to complete and improve joint working mechanisms for the prevention of school bullying. Issues such as juvenile bullying, internet addiction, and violent crimes involve multiple factors such as family, school, and the internet, and judicial protections should be used to promote coordinated efforts to promote family protection, school protection, social protection, online protection, and government protection, to jointly protect the healthy growth of minors, and to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and requirements of "grasping the front end and curing the disease before it happens".
In response to the problem of insufficient comprehensive protection of the rights and interests of minors, implement integrated criminal, civil, and administrative protections. The root cause of criminal cases involving minors lies in the family, the school, and the society, and in the early stage, it is mostly manifested in the form of civil disputes involving minors. For example, some motor vehicle traffic accidents cause children to lose their fathers and mothers, become single-parent families or orphans, causing children to have psychological problems or become children in difficulty, and in the process of handling cases, it is necessary to do a good job of psychological assessment and intervention, strengthen judicial assistance, and other work; For example, in a family case where the parents are divorced, and the parent raising the child moves to another city without the consent of the other party due to work reasons, the two parties have a fierce conflict, and the child is sued to the court over the issue of child support. The court did not make a judgment lightly, but did many things to do the work, and finally promoted the most beneficial plan for the child: the two parties raised together, fulfilled their obligations, shared the cost of visitation, and progressively raised the child, and solved the problems of long-distance parenting in a package, which not only resolved the conflict between the parents, but also created conditions for the healthy growth of the child; Carry out family education for both parents, carry out psychological intervention for children, coordinate school attention to children's growth, and so on. In order to further do a solid and detailed job in the protection of the rights and interests of minors, in May 2023, the Party Group of the Supreme Court, after careful study, decided to integrate the Supreme Court's "Juvenile Court Work Office", which is jointly composed of the research room, the first criminal court, and the first civil court, and has a division of labor and responsibility, into the "juvenile trial work office", relying on the first civil court to carry out its work, and uniformly responsible for the supervision and guidance of criminal, civil, and administrative trial work involving minors, with the aim of realizing the "three-in-one" of criminal, civil, and administrative trials involving minors In the course of handling cases involving minors, adjudicators should simultaneously pay attention to the preservation of civil and administrative rights and interests, the prevention and punishment of criminal offenses, and the preservation of the public interest. The purpose of the "three-in-one" trial is to achieve comprehensive and timely protection, and to implement the principle of "maximizing the interests of minors". On the one hand, through "penetrating" trials, relevant "problems" and clues can be discovered in a timely manner, and solutions can be resolved in a timely manner or even in a package, so as to avoid the problem from dragging on, and strive to minimize the impact and harm to minors; on the other hand, considering all issues together as a whole can effectively avoid the drawbacks of "treating the head with a headache and treating the foot with a sore foot", and is conducive to a comprehensive grasp and fair handling of the case. On April 15, the Supreme People's Court issued the "Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Carrying out the Work of 'Caring for Minors' in Divorce Cases Involving Minor Children", requiring people's courts at all levels to remind parties with minor children when hearing divorce cases, reminding them to care for and care for minor children, pay attention to the mental health of minor children, and properly handle the custody, visitation, and At the same time, remind the parties that if they do not care about the minor children, the possible consequences of not fulfilling the guardianship responsibilities. The purpose is to promote the protection of minors' families through judicial protection, urge parents to perform guardianship duties, minimize the adverse impact of parental divorce on children, prevent minors from breaking the law and committing crimes due to lack of parental care, and move the prevention and control of juvenile crime forward. The establishment of juvenile family trial institutions in the people's courts, the integration of criminal, civil, and administrative protections, and the promotion of the organic integration of judicial protection with family, school, society, the Internet, and government protection, is an important system for the protection of minors and crime prevention, and it is very necessary and focused on promoting implementation.
In response to changes in cases of marriage and family disputes, the rule of law is to guide and regulate it. With the changes in family structure and concept of marriage, the types of marital and family disputes are becoming more and more diverse, and the protection of women's rights and interests is facing new situations, and the judiciary must keep up with and respond to them. For example, in terms of domestic violence against women, in 2023, courts across the country issued a total of 5,695 personal safety protection orders, a year-on-year increase of 41.5% compared with 2022, a record increase in the past five years. In addition, the forms of domestic violence are also changing, such as mental violence in the form of cold words and verbal abuse, economic violence in the form of deprivation or derogation of economic autonomy, "soft" violence in the form of self-harm and self-injury, and the determination of responsibility for violence committed in premarital cohabitation, etc., which require judicial response. In the case of Mu Linhan's suicide by insulting his live-in girlfriend, the court sentenced him to fixed-term imprisonment for the crime of ill-treatment, establishing the judicial rule that family members should bear criminal responsibility for violence committed by cohabitation before marriage. For example, on the issue of high bride price, in response to the increase in disputes involving bride price in recent years and even the vicious cases that have led to it, judicial interpretations and typical cases have been formulated and issued, which not only respect traditional customs, but also explicitly prohibit the solicitation of property in the name of bride price, curb high bride price in accordance with the law, let marriage begin with love, and let the bride price return to "rites". The people's courts have always adhered to a firm stance of protecting women's "fair rights, fair opportunities, and fair rules" in their efforts to protect the lawful rights and interests of women in families, fairly handle marital debt disputes, lawfully protect the rights and interests of "women married outside the home" in resettlement and compensation, combat female employment discrimination, and counter domestic violence, truly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the vast number of women, and carry forward positive social customs.
Source: Observer.com WeChat public account
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