A vice-president of Shanghai High People's Court says there
should be a criminal law targeting juvenile delinquents.
"The country's current Criminal Law is mainly for adults," said
Liu Hua at a two-day symposium that opened on Friday.
"It does not clarify the difference between punishments imposed
on adults and minors, apart from stipulating that minors can't be
given the death sentence in murder cases.
"Punishment used for adults is way too heavy for minors and it
will not help them reform," Liu said, adding that education was
important for law-breaking youngsters.
China has a population of 367 million under 18 years old.
"They represent the future of our country," said Gu Xiulian, vice-chairwoman of the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top
legislature.
Juvenile crime is currently growing at a rate of 12 percent a
year, according to Gu, and juveniles make up 9 to 10 percent of all
criminals.
"We are seeing younger criminals who are conducting crimes of
greater violence," she said.
In Shanghai, courts dealt with more than 1,500 criminal cases
concerning minors last year and the number has increased this
year.
"Minors are more impulsive and tend not to think about the
consequence of their behaviour," said Zhang Jingmo, vice-president
of Shanghai's Changning District People's Court. The court set up
the country's first juvenile courtroom in 1984.
"Their motives are usually less vicious when they carry out a
crime."
But the current Criminal Law only stipulates lenient sentences
for less serious crimes.
"It does not really differentiate between adults and
youngsters," said Wang Mu, director of the China Criminology
Association.
"Crime committed by minors and adult crime are fundamentally
different. Therefore the way to deal with them should be totally
different," said Wang.
"It's not just a matter of the length of sentence."
Courts have been trying to adopt a different approach when
dealing with younger suspects.
They are trying to include more education into sentences, but
there is no standard law.
In Shanghai, four district courts have set up juvenile
courtrooms to judge criminal cases involving people under 18.
The trial process runs from investigation to social
rehabilitation afterwards.
"The judge will investigate how a suspect has grown up, who he
or she hangs out with and will look into what led to the
delinquency," Liu Hua said.
"And the jury team will consider the result of the investigation
when they make a judgment."
(China Daily June 24, 2006)