In accordance with the overall goal of comprehensively deepening reform and comprehensively governing the country according to law set by the Party Central Committee, in order to fully implement the judicial system reform tasks deployed by the 18th and 19th National Congresses, the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed in the "2018-2022 Procuratorial Reform Work Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Reform Plan") formulated and issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate: "Explore the establishment of a system of critical prevention, family education, graded treatment and protection punishment for juveniles who have committed crimes." "The system integrates and integrates the existing measures for the treatment of juveniles who have committed crimes, and optimizes the effect of specific treatment measures, which is undoubtedly a major measure in the protection of the rights and interests of minors." When the judicial organs design the specific content of the grading treatment system for juvenile delinquency, the first issue to be considered is how to refine the nature of the system as "hierarchical", which will determine the scope of choice of specific content covered by the system and the protection of juveniles who have committed crimes. The "hierarchical nature" of the system for the graded treatment of juveniles who have committed crimes shall include the system functions, applicable subjects, the integration of measure types, and the grading of the direction of measure reform.
First, the balance of institutional function construction. The balance of the system construction function reveals that the relationship between the "critical prevention of juvenile delinquents, family education, graded treatment and protection punishment system" proposed in the "Reform Plan" is actually an inclusive and inclusive relationship. Among them, "graded treatment" is a normative expression of institutional value neutrality, which can accommodate three systems of "critical prevention", "family education" and "protective punishment" for juveniles who have committed crimes. According to the literal interpretation of modern Chinese, "treatment" covers behavioral measures such as "inhalation, treatment, treatment, and treatment", and is not the same as ordering discipline, custody and reeducation, and community correction, which is actually only a punishment for the behavior of juveniles who have committed crimes and wrongdoing. "Graded treatment" is different from "graded punishment", although in terms of the function of initiating measures, the initiation of the graded treatment system and the punishment system for juveniles who commit crimes are based on the criminal illegality of the special criminal subjects of juveniles. However, the "graded treatment" system has both the function of promoting behavior improvement and the function of sanctioning acts of hierarchical punishment. Based on the clear system distinctions in the Reform Plan, when constructing a graded treatment system for juveniles who have committed crimes, the functions of the basic measures covered by the "graded treatment" system should be two-tiered and neutral, taking into account two aspects: First, the preventive measures for criminal acts; The second is sanctions for criminal acts. The construction of a hierarchical treatment system for juvenile delinquents is undoubtedly in line with the spirit of "tolerance without connivance" for juvenile delinquents.
Second, the system applies the relativity of the subject. Undoubtedly, the most critical issue in the construction of the hierarchical treatment system for juvenile delinquency must be the understanding of the subject of the application of juvenile delinquency. The understanding of the subjectivity of juveniles who have committed crimes shall conform to the "hierarchical nature" of the "graded treatment measures" system. According to article 17 of China's Criminal Law and article 508 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure of the People's Procuratorate (for Trial Implementation), juvenile criminal cases refer to criminal cases in which a criminal suspect has reached the age of 14 or under the age of 18 when he commits a suspected criminal act. At the same time, article 12 of the Law on Public Security Administration Punishment also defines the age of minors for general violations of the law. Since the system of graded treatment of juveniles who have committed crimes explored and established in the "Reform Plan" includes systems such as "critical prevention, family education and protective punishment", when constructing a grading treatment system for juveniles who have committed crimes, it is not possible to directly understand "juveniles who have committed crimes" as "juveniles of criminal subjects". In this regard, in terms of specific measures for the construction of the system, all the treatment measures contained in the system should not be generalized and applied to juveniles who have committed crimes. According to the clear requirements of the Reform Plan for the construction of a "graded treatment system", juveniles who have committed crimes should include four types of subjects:
First, where minors under the age of 14 commit general illegal conduct, measures with a comprehensive preventive effect as the mainstay shall be applied. For example, after ordering guardians to strengthen supervision ineffectively, consideration may be given to placing minors in closed or semi-closed work-study schools, conducting specialized rule of law education, and evaluating them in stages. Second, where minors who have reached the age of 14 but are under the age of 16 commit general violations of the law, they shall apply the treatment measures that maximize the preventive effect and weaken the effect of "sanctions and sanctions" in the system of punishment measures. For example, adopting voluntary labor measures by communities or public interest groups to strengthen the awareness of responsibility for harmful acts of minors can also exercise their own social operation ability. Third, where those who have reached the age of 14 or are under the age of 16 and carry out serious violence or other criminal acts as provided for in paragraph 2 of article 17 of the Criminal Law, the effect of the application of the punishment shall be weakened, and at the same time focus on the psychological correction of the corresponding criminal act, the analysis of deviations in behavioral cognition, and the assessment of the personal danger of the behavior. Fourth, where minors who have reached the age of 16 commit criminal acts and should bear criminal responsibility, a light sentence shall be applied in accordance with law, and consideration will be given to adopting a commutation system that is different from that of adults, focusing on the assessment values of corrections in the juvenile's psychological, behavioral, and other aspects.
Third, the hierarchical nature of hierarchical treatment measures. The "Reform Plan" indicates that in order to explore the establishment of a system of critical prevention, family education, graded treatment and protective punishment of juveniles who have committed crimes, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between specific treatment measures such as critical prevention, family education, and protective punishment in the graded treatment system. The previous emphasis on graded treatment includes critical prevention, family education, and protective punishment does not mean that the "graded nature" of the grading treatment system for juvenile delinquents is limited to inclusive relationships. In principle, critical prevention, family education and protective sanctions have a certain level. For example, the sanctions effect of family education are certainly lower than those of compulsory sanctions. According to article 17 of the Criminal Law, at the level of the main body of juveniles who have not reached the age of criminal responsibility, China's legislation adopts two means of punishment: "ordering discipline and custody and reeducation". In addition, the Decision of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Further Strengthening Juvenile Criminal Prosecution Work, the Several Opinions on Further Establishing and Improving the Supporting Work System for Handling Juvenile Criminal Cases, and other relevant provisions also regard social care, work-study education, and psychological correction as preventive measures for juvenile delinquency. Therefore, to explore the establishment of graded treatment measures for juvenile delinquency, the measures provided for in existing laws, regulations, and corresponding policy documents should be integrated, and the hierarchical nature of the measures should be reflected at the level of the grading treatment system. For example, different levels of treatment measures are applied according to the age of the juvenile at the time of the crime, the degree of difficulty of behavior correction, and the results of the psychological assessment of the perpetrator. In view of this, consideration may be given to dividing the hierarchical effects of the "welfare category - corrections - criminal punishment category" among many treatment measures such as "social care, work-study education, psychological corrections, ordering discipline, custody and reeducation". On a hierarchical basis, the measures are mutually reinforcing and not mutually exclusive.
Fourth, deal with the gradual nature of measures reform. In the face of the occurrence of vicious juvenile crimes from time to time, whether it is necessary to carry out reforms on the basis of existing hierarchical treatment measures has attracted the attention of scholars and judicial practitioners. Some scholars have proposed the introduction of the common law system 'malicious age-making rule' to expand the scope of application of juvenile punishment; Some scholars have also proposed to learn from the "holiday life counseling measures" in Taiwan, China; According to the initial concept of the grading treatment system for juvenile delinquents put forward in the "Reform Plan", the hierarchical treatment system focuses on highlighting the "hierarchical nature" of the treatment measures, in other words, the construction of the system is not to include all the existing theoretical suggestions, but to emphasize the integration on the basis of the existing treatment measures to strengthen and enhance the pertinence, applicability and final effect of specific measures. It can be seen that the current reform of hierarchical treatment measures has shown a gradual development, rather than an overnight achievement. For treatment measures that are more reformative and breakthrough-oriented, either consider whether they can be covered in the existing treatment measures, and adjust the system content of existing measures, such as "holiday life counseling measures" can be covered by measures such as "psychological correction for minors" and "social care" in China; Either rely on basic legal norms for deeper reforms, such as adjusting the age of criminal responsibility for minors at the level of criminal law norms, in order to adapt to the "malicious age rule".