Greater flexibility in dealing with juvenile crimes, leading justice official says

China will continue to strengthen its juvenile justice system, classify juvenile delinquencies on different levels and form a joint force with society to better protect the underage and prevent juvenile crimes, said Tong Jianming, deputy procurator-general, on Tuesday.

"China has an underage population of more than 300 million. Sufficient judicial protection concerns the happiness of hundreds of millions of families," he said, adding that the judicial protection of juveniles should include both the victims and the offenders.

China's prosecutors have made juvenile protection a priority in recent years, according to Tong. In October, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a proposal to the Ministry of Education, suggesting the ministry reinforce the management of school safety and formulate more concrete measures to prevent sexual assault against students.

The ministry has attached great importance to the proposal and set up a special team, jointly with other administrative departments at all levels, to implement the protection system for child sexual abuse, impose strict management on girls' dormitories, as well as file reports of sexual assaults happened on campus, according to Tong.

Prosecutors have also been engaged in popularizing the law in schools, with 1,796 prosecutors serving as the vice-president of primary and secondary schools across the country to help popularize the rule of law on campus.

Juvenile law violators harm society but also are the victims of bad environments and should be treated rationally, Tong said.

"For their judicial protection, we should focus on educating them first with punishment as a supporting approach," he said, adding that they should be tolerated but not spoilt, strictly disciplined but treated with deep love.

Tong said the top procuratorate had created a new department last year that specifically dealt with juvenile-related cases. "We will make good use of the newly-established department to give full play to its role," he added.