Juvenile Criminal Justice in a Dilemma: Punishment or Resocialization? - Under the background of lowering the age of criminal responsibility (P073)

• In Event: Poster session

Abstract

With the Criminal Code Amendment 11th in 2021, China reduced the minimum age of criminal responsibility for children to 12 years in order to combat the “serious juvenile delinquency”. In contrast, in 2019, UNICEF appealed “Lowing the age of criminal responsibility is against child rights”, and according to the Act on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency in 2021, “the best measure for the juvenile offender is education”.

Retribution and punishment or crime prevention and resocialization in the juvenile criminal justice? The worldwide juvenile criminal justice is faced with this choice and balance. The Chinese juvenile criminal justice is also in a dilemma: with the extreme cases reports and the increasing of public fears of “juvenile predators” the dependent juvenile criminal legislation is getting tougher, but the special correction needs of juvenile offenders are underestimated and cannot be fulfilled. Thus, the recidivism prevention becomes unpredictable.

Under this background, this article is dedicated to draw the discussion on lowering the age of criminal responsibility in Germany and China firstly. Secondly, the discussion will then focus on recent developments of juvenile criminal justice in China, in particular, the new legalization, the restorative justice and the community corrections. Thirdly, the dilemma of present Chinese juvenile justice is to be analyzed, and then the reasons on the legalization and judiciary would be revealed, which European juvenile criminal justice could serve as a lesson in the past. Drawing upon the accumulated research and analyses on the subject matter, the article highlights the different approaches and significant challenges such as juvenile criminal justice guidelines, special interventions and correction measures for juvenile offenders. Finally, the question “Do we need an independent juvenile criminal law in China?” is to be addressed and the future of Chinese juvenile criminal justice is to be prospected.

Author

• Ying Wang, Wuhan University, China; Heidelberg University, Germany