Treat delinquents with kid gloves

More importantly, lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility alone will not solve the problem. As Shi Weizhong, a senior official of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said, there's a gap between juveniles and adults in terms of subjective awareness. Even if a juvenile commits a crime that seriously endangers society, it doesn't mean that he/she has developed into a real criminal personality; at best he/she can be seen as an "illegal personality".

Given juveniles' stage of mental development, severe punishment plays a limited role in preventing juvenile delinquency. Instead, severe punishment could have a negative effect on their mind and turn them into hardened criminals. Also, by being behind bars with adult criminals or being labeled as criminals, juveniles could fall victim to recidivism. Moreover, treating juveniles as hardened criminals is against the global practice of juvenile protection.

The real problem is not the minimum age of criminal responsibility, but the failure of society to provide necessary supervision, treatment and help to juvenile delinquents without ascribing "criminal intent" to their acts.

The Law on Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency only requires guardians and schools to discipline children with serious misconduct, while vocational schools (which don't provide good education) are the only legal option for delinquents. Compared with some other countries, China does not have enough social organizations and mechanisms, except for judicial authorities, to help "serious problem children".

Protection should not mean indulgence. Cautiously handing down punishment to juveniles doesn't mean that they should be simply sent back to their parents after committing serious offences.

Such an act signifies irresponsible behavior toward children as well as society. In Chongqing's case, the girl "tortured" the one-year-old boy before throwing him from the 25th floor, yet her parents denied that she had been suffering from psychological problems.

The authorities cannot do anything with the girl, although she needs help from outside her family.

Therefore, it's time the government provided necessary correctional facilities (including social workshops, community training centers and psychological intervention) to juvenile delinquents to help their all-round personality development, which would be a better way of fighting juvenile delinquency than lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility or sending adolescents to jail for their violent acts.

The author is a writer with China Daily. wangyiqing@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 06/20/2014 page9)