According to the case: Rules for the judicial protection of juvenile crime cases
In the legal system of our country, the protection of the minor and the prevention of crime are always in an important position. Article 38 of the Law on the Protection of Minors and Article 44 of the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency both reflect the state's cautious attitude and humanistic concern for juvenile delinquency. It is expressly stipulated that when dealing with minors who break the law and commit crimes, education, probation and rescue should be implemented as the policy, and education should be the main and punishment should be the supplement. Judicial personnel should properly balance punishment and education when handling criminal cases involving minors, and at the same time fully consider the growth and development of minors, so as to guide them to the right path and reshape life as the main content. This kind of legislative spirit shows the tolerance and salvation of juvenile offenders in our law, and also reflects the defense of legal dignity. This paper will deeply discuss the practical experience and far-reaching influence on the prevention and correction of juvenile crime.
The following are 12 examples of judicial judgments carefully selected and organized by the author, highlighting the judicial protection rules adhered to in juvenile crime cases, aimed at protecting and saving minors.
First, the implementation of the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, tolerance but not connivance
Ji (under the age of 14)
[Gist of judgment]
A minor Ji and others in the Internet cafe conflict, agreed to carry wooden sticks, machetes and other tools to fight, resulting in many injuries. Ji, as the leader of the fight, constitutes the crime of affray and is sentenced to real punishment.
The problem of school violence is related to the healthy growth of minors, for serious violations of the law, there are widespread adverse effects of the primary offenders, should be fully considered their subjective malignancy and social harm, although education, but first need to be given severe punishment, so that they understand the harmful consequences of their behavior, leniency and punishment, so as to change the ideology of minors by strong means to achieve the effect of saving.
-- Anqing Court, 2022
Second, minors should also bear criminal responsibility for mischief
Intentional murder of Lee (age 15)
[Gist of judgment]
Li Mou was playing with his companions by the river, pushing his companions, causing them to drown, and another companion who went to the rescue was also unfortunately killed.
The court held that Li Mou retaliated for the failure to ask for candy and wanted to prank, but he should know that his behavior may lead to the drowning of his companions, but still push them into the deep water area, and have a laissez-faire attitude toward the damage consequences, constituting the crime of intentional injury causing death, and be sentenced to 11 years.
Although minors are not yet mature in mind and behavior, they cannot arbitrarily indulge in bad cases with extremely bad nature and extremely serious consequences and can be dealt with seriously.
-- People's Court of Nanyang City, Henan Province, 2024
Third, minor accomplices shall be given a lighter punishment according to law, but may still face a longer sentence
Xia xx et al. Drug transport case (16 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
The defendant Xia instructed a minor Liu (under the age of 16) to transport drugs; Liu also invited a minor Zhong (16 years old) to participate, under the arrangement of Xia, Liu implemented the act of picking up a huge amount of drugs and transporting, and Zhong implemented the act of contacting drug transport vehicles and receiving drugs.
The court held that the defendant Xia XX transported a huge amount of drugs, the social harm is great, the behavior is extremely serious, and the use of minors to transport drugs, decided to execute the death penalty. Zhong, a minor, is an accessory. According to law, his punishment should be reduced and he should be sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment and fined.
In the same case, the minors who transported the amount of drugs enough to be sentenced to death were only sentenced to 11 years, which fully reflects that the law will give full consideration to the level of awareness of minors and the possibility of salvation in sentencing, and provide the minors involved with a new opportunity to reform. However, due to the relatively serious criminal acts, he still faces a longer sentence.
-- Typical Case of Judicial Protection of Minors' Rights and Interests of Yunnan High Court, 2023
4. Revoke the guardianship and sever the source of all evil for minors to break the law and commit crimes
Remote deprivation of custody (ages 7, 8)
[Gist of judgment]
Sui and other three people organized a number of minors under the age of 10 to steal store property. After the intervention of the prosecution, it was found that the children involved were repatriated to their homes for stealing many times, and their parents sent them to criminal gangs again, and even taught them criminal methods. The procuratorate then sent a procuratorial recommendation to the local government, urging it to instruct the relevant departments to file a lawsuit to revoke the custody. After the social assistance station sued, the court ruled according to law to revoke the parental custody of the children involved and designate guardianship.
The bad family atmosphere is an important reason for juvenile delinquency. If the parents do not perform the duty of guardianship, the guardianship shall be deprived of the place, and the child shall seek to escape the fate of the criminal gang once and for all. Revoking guardianship has become a powerful tool to prevent juvenile delinquency.
-- Typical cases (cases) of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Strengthening Judicial Protection of Minors, 2018
5. Intervene in psychological crisis and help minors regain confidence in life
Xiao Zhu Theft (17 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
In the process of reviewing and prosecuting Xiaozhu suspected of theft in Huaian, Jiangsu Province, the procuratorial organ learned that the relevant personnel inadvertently leaked the case when conducting social investigation, which led the villagers to look at it differently. Xiao Zhu was overwhelmed and drank pesticide to commit suicide. The procuratorial organ selects special personnel to cooperate with psychological counselors to conduct counseling and intervention, and visits regularly. Subsequently, according to the circumstances of the case, help and education measures were adopted, and the decision not to prosecute was made in accordance with the law, and Xiao Zhu's ideological concerns were finally dispelled.
After the minor involved in the crime, the psychological state has changed obviously. When handling cases, judicial organs will also take into account the physical and mental conditions of minors to carry out education and help measures, and effectively protect the rights and interests of minors. At the same time, it can also be fully seen from this case that the juvenile criminal record sealing system has a significant impact on the return of minors to society and mental health.
-- A Typical case of Strengthening judicial protection of Minors by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, 2018
6, avoid leaving society, misdemeanors shall be subject to probation according to law
Wang et al fraud case (under 18 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
Wang et al published a fictitious recruitment position on the Internet, and a minor Zhang applied to enter the company. The company's actual business is wire fraud. In the process of work, Zhang found that there was a false situation, but under the economic temptation, he still carried out the fraud.
In the process of hearing, the court fully weighed the social experience of the minor and the correct guidance possibility, and sentenced the principal offender to a real sentence and the minor to a suspended sentence.
For minors involved in crime to adopt the education-oriented policy, it is necessary to fully consider the cognitive ability of minors, give them a lesson at the same time, not to make them excessively detached from society, for minor crimes, probation can be applied according to law.
-- Beijing High People's Court, 2020
7. Judicial recommendations help to deal with campus bullying
Campus assault Public security management Punishment case (under 14 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
Three junior high school students got into a physical altercation while playing table tennis, resulting in brain injury to one of them. After the Public Security Bureau received the police, the case was filed as an administrative case of public security, which was later turned into a criminal case, and because the violator had not reached the legal age of criminal responsibility and did not meet the conditions for criminal filing, the“Decision to cancel the case”was made, and no further handling was done.
The family of the victim filed an administrative lawsuit against the Public Security Bureau for not performing its duty to protect minors. After the hearing, the court issued a judicial recommendation to the county Public Security Bureau and the Education Bureau, suggesting that the problem of victim education be solved through consultation and appropriate educational disciplinary measures be taken.
In this case, the court balanced the protection of minor violators and minor victims, clarified the obligations of various administrative units in the form of judicial recommendations, and avoided mutual deniability, so as to form a joint force and effectively solve the problem of protecting the rights and interests of both minors in campus bullying cases.
-- Ankang Railway Transportation Court, Shaanxi Province, 2023
8, conditional non-prosecution and supervision orders, to promote the guardianship of minors without help and education
Xiao Gang Theft (16 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
The minor Xiaogang and others stole a total of 10,000 yuan in cash from others' cars three times. The procuratorate made a conditional decision not to prosecute, invited social workers and teachers to form a helping and teaching team to conduct targeted intervention and correction based on their growth experience, family relations and social contacts, and issued a supervision order to parents to urge them to actively perform their guardianship duties. Xiaogang eventually won many awards in school competitions and finally entered high school successfully.
The failure of minors' guardians to perform their duties is likely to cause minors to form bad habits and even commit crimes due to lack of discipline. The guardianship order ensures that the guardianship of minors can be effectively implemented with the force of law, and corrects the growth path of minors.
-- Typical cases of minors of Qinghai Provincial High People's Procuratorate, 2023
9. Criminal records of minors shall be sealed after they commit crimes, and they shall be guaranteed to return to school if conditions permit
Chai Mou traffic crime (under 18 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
On October 1, 2023, the defendant Chai So-and-so drove an unregistered electric three-wheeled motorcycle without a driver's license and without wearing a safety helmet, colliding with the victim Jia So-and-so who was walking in the same direction, resulting in the victim Jia so-and-so being injured and dying after ineffective rescue. The court sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for one year.
In line with the principle of education first and punishment as supplement, the court sealed the criminal record according to law, and contacted the education system to implement the matter of returning to school, and served the“Notification of Minors' Privacy Protection”to the school, telling it not to copy and spread the judgment documents. Through the privacy protection measures such as the sealing of criminal records and the privacy protection notice, the personal dignity of the juveniles involved in crimes is fully protected, so as to prevent them from being treated differently because of their criminal history, and help the juveniles involved in crimes return to society without trace.
10. Educate, rehabilitate and rescue juvenile offenders
Jia xx fraud case (under 18 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
Minors need funds to participate in the e-competition, pseudonyms, fictitious ages, falsely claimed to operate new media companies, and tricked many people into taking online loans for their use on the basis of brushing single rebates, defrauding more than 300,000 yuan.
During the trial, the court commissioned a social worker to conduct a social investigation, and found that Jia had excellent grades since childhood and had won many awards in math competitions. Due to the lack of guardianship, Jia dropped out of school after his parents divorced, and could play the role of court education and family influence to help and teach. Through the one-stop measures of“round table trial, social investigation, and court education”, the law has given full play to its role of alerting education and influencing family affection.
-- Supreme People's Court, a Typical Case on the protection of Minors in 2024
11. The juvenile Offender assistance and education mechanism provides all-round supervision and assistance and education
Jang So-and-so opened a casino case (age 16)
[Gist of judgment]
In 2013, defendant Zhang was hired to rent a store to manage the gambling machines and to keep accounts at the cash register. The court heard that it constituted the crime of opening a casino. Considering that Zhang xx is a migrant worker's child, originally due to the difficulties of helping and teaching minors with foreign household registration, probation is generally not applied, which is unfair. The precedent of this case has explored the establishment of a community correction mechanism for juvenile offenders with foreign household registration. At the same time of community correction, they are recommended to work in enterprises in the supervision and education base, which solves their life difficulties on the one hand and prevents them from crimes on the other hand. The effect is good.
-- Supreme People's Court, 2014 Typical Case of Judicial Protection of Minors' Rights and Interests
12, the suspension order to help minors correct bad habits
Wang robbery (17 years old)
[Gist of judgment]
Beijing Haidian District People's Court held that the defendant Wang's behavior has constituted the crime of robbery and should be punished. In view of the defendant Wang Mou crime is not an adult, the first offender, to the case can truthfully confess their crime facts, the trial confession attitude is better, has compensated the victim's economic losses, the victim's understanding, the money, things have been returned, the defendant Wang Mou school is willing to accept its back to school to continue studying, and establish a regulatory organization to supervise and help. Its past performance is good, deep repentance, with the basis of probation and rescue, so the defendant Wang Mou was relieved of punishment according to law, and was suspended.
At the same time, in order to correct the bad habits of Wang Mou, the supervision and help and education during the probation period are declared to be prohibited. Defendant Wang is prohibited from entering nightclubs, bars, discos, Internet cafes and other entertainment venues during the probation period, and is prohibited from drinking alcohol.
While education is the primary, punishment is the secondary and probation is imposed for juvenile crimes, prohibitive measures are adopted to prohibit minors from contacting places that are not conducive to their physical and mental health, and to help minors return to society in a healthy environment. In this case, the judge also urged the minor to write a rescue guarantee, carried out a community help and education forum, regularly listened to the minor's ideological report, and fully escorted his return to society. A serious violation of the prohibition order may be punished by the public security organ in the place where the community correction institution is located, and the suspended sentence may be revoked if the circumstances are serious.
-- Supreme People's Court, 2014 Typical Case of Judicial Protection of Minors' Rights and Interests
When dealing with cases involving minors, judicial organs take a variety of measures, including supervision orders, family education orders, public interest litigation, social worker assistance, criminal record sealing, and non-prosecution of misdemeanors. These measures are aimed at helping the minors involved to reintegrate into society and to make them aware of their wrongdoing and correct it.
For those minors involved in crimes with deep subjective malignity and great social harm, the judicial organs will also take severe measures to regulate and punish them, so that they are deeply aware of the serious consequences of their behavior.
In general, China has achieved remarkable results in the judicial protection of criminal minors and entered the stage of comprehensive development. Dehe Shanghai Minor Rights and Interests Protection Business Committee calls on relevant departments and legal professionals to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, make joint efforts to save and prevent minors from breaking the law and crimes, and ensure the healthy growth of minors.
