Lower the age of criminal responsibility? I oppose it! A discussion on the 13-year-old boy who killed a 10-year-old girl without facing criminal liability.
On October 27, a relevant official from the Dalian police responded to a reporter from The Beijing News regarding the case of the 10-year-old girl's murder, stating that the measures currently taken against Cai Moumou are...Shelter and education are the most severe measures within the legal framework.After the incident, the police acted swiftly and identified the suspect as quickly as possible. A very complete chain of evidence has been established in the investigation. It is currently confirmed thatThe case was solely committed by Cai Moumou, and his parents neither participated nor were aware of it.According to police officials, after Cai Moumou was identified as a suspect, he was once allowed to return home because the evidence collected by the police was insufficient, and the assessment of the necessity for his detention and correction had not yet been completed. On October 24, with the approval of the higher-level public security authorities, the police immediately placed Cai Moumou under detention and correction for a period of three years. (Source: The Beijing News)
Has criminal law become a "shield" for juvenile delinquency?
I've been seeing this phrase a lot lately.—"Children without a sense of right and wrong are the most terrifying creatures on this planet. They have curiosity, initiative, destructive power, and the Juvenile Protection Law."
The increasing number of serious juvenile crimes has led many to directly blame the Juvenile Protection Law, but in reality, it's the Juvenile Protection Law taking the blame for the Criminal Law.
(Image source: China Youth Net)
Article 17 of China's Criminal Law sets the age of 14 as the minimum age for criminal responsibility based on age, with those under 14 being in the stage of complete absence of criminal responsibility. Undeniably, this "one-size-fits-all" age-based criminal responsibility system clearly defines the boundaries of criminal capacity, is highly operable, and has significant practical application value.
However, this has also turned the Criminal Law, originally the last line of defense for social morality, into a "protective talisman" for young offenders.
Is it reasonable to simply lower the age of criminal responsibility?
From a horizontal perspective, individual growth is inevitably influenced by various surrounding factors, and the significant disparities between eastern and western regions, as well as urban and rural areas in China, lead to vastly different abilities of discernment and self-control among youth in different regions.
From a vertical perspective, the presence or absence of criminal responsibility does not have a clear-cut boundary; the gradual enhancement of discernment and self-control is a progressive quantitative process without a unified and clear threshold.
Screenshot of the perpetrator's chat in the Dalian 13-year-old murder case (Image source: Baidu Images)
These disparities, not caused by individual factors, cannot be remedied in the short term,and once the age of criminal responsibility is determined, it has universal binding force on the entire society.
If the age of criminal responsibility is simply lowered, how much should it be reduced exactly?Making children in different circumstances bear the same punishment may address one group while neglecting another, resulting in substantive inequality in penalties.
The author's outlook:
The trend of younger offenders is influenced by multiple factors and appears unstoppable. The most significant among these is the development of social productivity and the enhancement of material, cultural, and spiritual life, which advance the maturation of adolescents. This earlier maturation has a dual nature: on one hand, it can promote the early intellectual development of young people, but on the other hand, because of this earlier maturation, it manifests in juvenile crime as a shift toward younger ages.
The perpetrator of the Dalian 13-year-old murder case (Image source: Baidu Images)
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law FirmIt is believed that, compared to directly lowering the age of criminal responsibility to curb juvenile crime, first introducing a more flexible policy like the "malice-supplementing age principle" seems more feasible.
Malice Supplies The Age principlerefers to the situation where there is evidence provingthat a minor has sufficient cognitive ability regarding their objective criminal act,and the minor, with great malice, repeatedly commits such acts or causes severe consequences,then the minor's subjective malice is deemed sufficient to compensate for their age deficiency,and they are treated as a person with full criminal responsibility in criminal proceedings.
Acts such as concealing a corpse after murder, bribing witnesses, or framing others have the effect of maliciously supplementing age.
For the entire criminal procedure, the introduction of the malicious age supplementation principle also serves as an opportunity to expand judicial discretion, helping judges shift from focusing solely on legal provisions to flexibly analyzing the logic of emotions and reasoning behind each case during criminal trials.
We will continue to follow up next!
Why did the son kill someone at home, with "bloodstains extending from his doorstep all the way to the bushes," while the parents claim "ignorance"? How can this be explained? If it is confirmed that the parents might have known, what direction would the case take?
