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Too young to be criminal (2)

By He Na in Beijing and Zhang Chunyan in London (China Daily)    14:54, December 18, 2013
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Xinyuan's grandmother and sister look at photos of the toddler.

Age of responsibility

"When a case is serious enough to constitute a public menace, the police have an obligation to investigate and give the public an answer. But it's the court's job to judge whether the girl is too young to avoid criminal responsibility. We cannot fail to act simply because of her age," said Li.

She noted that similar cases have occurred in other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Although official statistics are unavailable, experts claim that China has seen a marked rise in juvenile delinquency since 1990, and that the number of cases involving assailants below the minimum age for criminal charges is rising. However, the question of how society should deal with "problem" children and prevent them from committing further crimes is one many countries face.

"I know that some countries have experienced cases of this type and we can learn from the way they handled them," said Li, recalling a trip she made to the UK in 2010 to study procedures for juvenile offenders.

"Britain has a special law that aims at intervention, not simply punishment, of minors. It clearly states the "punishment" for juvenile offenders between the ages of 7 and 18," she said.

Although cases in the UK are tried by a juvenile court, the sentence handed down doesn't punish the child. Instead the parents are compelled to attend government-funded "parenting classes" where they learn how to raise and educate their children correctly.

"Britain also has the Children Act. For children with a marked tendency to hurt others or display signs of abnormal behavior, community social workers formulate a 'safety correction and track plan', which usually lasts around three years," said Li.

Emotional attachments

A 2011 survey conducted by the People's Public Security University of China showed that the average age at which adolescents begin to commit crimes is 12.2 years. Before the age of 12, most children still display heavy psychological attachment to their families, especially their parents, so problems are usually confined within the family circle.

The rise of juvenile delinquency in China, especially in cases of cruelty, has resulted in a small number of legal professionals calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered. However, most legal experts believe that the existing laws are sufficient.

The United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice clearly state that in legal systems that recognize the concept of a juvenile age of criminal responsibility, that age should not be set too low given children's emotional, mental and intellectual maturity.

The minimum age of criminal responsibility varies from country to country. In Switzerland it's 7, while in the UK it's 10. In Holland children are held to be responsible for their actions at age 12, while in France it's 13, and 14 in Germany.

In China, children under 14 are immune from the law, but for those with serious problems, the government can hire psychological assessment agencies to formulate a five to 10 year assessment and correction plan. At the end of that period, if the child is assessed as being normal in comparison with other children of the same age, the program is terminated.

Zhao Sanping, director of Beijing Guangheng Law Firm, who specializes in criminal cases, was shocked when he read about the case in Chongqing.

"I believe it's an isolated case. The age of criminal responsibility is based on the average intellectual level and mental maturity of children in each specific country. The law is there to protect the interests of the majority and can't be changed because of one or two isolated cases," he said.

"If the age of criminal responsibility is set too low or if there is no lower age limit at all, the notion of responsibility will become meaningless. The setting of the minimum age should emphasize the social compassion behind the law, and not punishment," he said.

Zhao explained that many foreign countries have very strong community networks and social workers play an important role in the correction of juvenile crime: "We have many communities in China, but the community networks are still underdeveloped. We simply cannot copy other countries' experiences."

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(Editor:ZhangQian、Chen Lidan)

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