From "school bully" to "gang boss," average age 17, charged with 45 rapes...
[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
Case review
Balin Left Banner, located in the northern part of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is a small town that just emerged from the list of impoverished counties last year. Here, a group of teenagers with an average age of only 17 committed dozens of violent crimes in just two years.
The Chifeng City Procuratorate accused Wang Ling and 18 other defendants of committing 45 rape crimes between August 2017 and May 2019.
[1] Wang Ling's parents stated that they have no objection to the fact that Wang Ling committed a crime, "He did commit a crime, but it does not warrant the death penalty."
[2] Most of the victims' parents believe that their daughters' sexual assault changed their original life trajectories and hope the law will severely punish the defendant.
[3] From October 15 to 19, the Inner Mongolia High Court held a second-instance trial for the case, which has not yet been announced.
[4] It is worth noting that this "domineering and heinous" gang leader was actually "the most bullied one" during his school days.
[5] In the memories of his childhood friends and schoolmates, as well as his own account, Wang Ling was once publicly stripped of his pants by senior students and often blocked at the school gate to demand money... So he sought refuge with a gang leader and began to run with the crowd. Later, he started recruiting his own underlings and began to bully others, thus sinking deeper and deeper.
[6] In addition to the rape charge, Wang Ling was also accused by the Chifeng City Procuratorate of ten charges, including affray, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, forcible indecency, insult, child molestation, group licentiousness, illegal detention, forced transaction, and illegal intrusion into a residence.
After the Wang Ling case, the Bairin Left Banner education system launched a special campaign to rectify the campus and surrounding environment, implementing the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "No. 1 Procuratorial Recommendation" aimed at preventing juvenile delinquency.
In September 2019, Bairin Left Banner Procuratorate Chief Procurator Yu Shumin emphasized at a related symposium that the Wang Ling case sounded an alarm for society, with rising juvenile crime rates. This case represents a historical "debt" hidden away, rooted in campus bullying triggered by factors such as violent tendencies, material comparison, physical defects, academic jealousy, and seeking favor from the opposite sex, reflecting deep-seated issues like lack of school supervision, excessive parental indulgence, involvement of idle social individuals, chaotic campus surroundings, and lax law enforcement.
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 236
Whoever rapes a woman by violence, coercion, or other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of fourteen shall be deemed to have committed rape and shall be given a heavier punishment.
Whoever rapes a woman or has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of fourteen shall, under any of the following circumstances, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years, life imprisonment, or death: (1) The circumstances are flagrant; (2) The victim is multiple; (3) The act is committed in a public place in front of others; (4) The act is committed by two or more persons in turn; (5) The victim is a girl under the age of ten or causes injury to her; (6) The act results in serious injury, death, or other serious consequences to the victim.
[1] The author's perspective
This case reveals not only multiple heinous crimes but also a series of loopholes behind them, including adolescent psychological issues, parental and school education, and lax local law enforcement. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the area is a small town that only recently emerged from poverty-stricken county status. Due to economic limitations, many able-bodied locals have to work outside, leaving their children to grow up freely in the area. For these children, lacking parental discipline and influenced by the local campus culture, they are often subtly affected without realizing it. Some may have been victims of school bullying, others may have experienced despair with no way out, and day by day, the seeds of crime begin to grow slowly. However, no matter what, one should never extend their evil hand to others.
Looking at Wang Ling in this case, besides the crime of rape, he committed multiple other criminal offenses, making him utterly evil. From being a "campus bully" to becoming a "gang leader," one can imagine how many people he has harmed. Yet such a notorious criminal leader remained at large for so many years. The author analyzes two reasons: first, victims were too afraid of Wang Ling to report; second, local police were negligent in management. After all, Wang Ling had become a local bully. If the police had investigated earlier, how could there have been no results? Every minute a criminal is caught earlier reduces danger in society and potentially saves one more victim.
[1] In fact, whether it is an educational issue or a legal issue, this fragmented situation is not what we want to see. We hope that relevant departments, schools, and parents will learn from the painful lessons of this incident, adhere to the principle of "education first, moral cultivation foremost," and we hope that children's future will be bright, and the adult world will be full of hope.
