NCJ Number
164969
Date Published
1996
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This overview of China's juvenile justice system describes the history of China's juvenile justice, the formal juvenile justice system, and informal practice with juveniles.
Abstract
Given the significant increase in juvenile crime in China since the economic reform, China has recently formalized its juvenile justice system by creating a juvenile court system and reorganizing institutional and noninstitutional treatment for juvenile offenders. The system still features informal processing, however, as it provides widely ranging discretionary power in adjudicating and disposing juvenile offenders. Community participation has been the chief feature of the juvenile justice system. This feature has been undermined, however, by economic forces that have taken parents from the home and caused frequent family relocations. Traditional community organizations have been weakened and have difficulty in providing counseling, persuasion, and mediation to children and families who are mobile. The broad discretionary powers of juvenile justice officials have been scrutinized by the Chinese legal community and human rights advocates. In addition, severe punishment, such as the death penalty for minors, has been criticized. It has been reported that the Legal Reform Commission of the People's Congress is reviewing a proposal to abolish the death penalty for offenders under age 18. As China moves toward modernization and industrialization, changes in family structure and the labor market will further diminish the power of the informal social control mechanism in Chinese society and increase demands for more formal control agencies to regulate human behavior. 6 tables, 1 figure, 19 notes, 41 references, and appended directory of juvenile justice and related services agencies and directors