Protection of minors enhanced under law

Mei Mei, a prosecutor from Southwest China's Chongqing, talks with students at Chongqing No 37 Secondary School during a class interval last month. [Photo/XINHUA]

Procuratorates nationwide have been continuously working to improve judicial protection for minors, to rescue juveniles involved in crimes and to strictly punish those who commit crimes against minors, according to a recent report.

The procuratorates are working to improve the protection of minors by combining professional and social forces, Zhang Jun, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said while delivering the report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, for deliberation on Friday.

Procurators insist on using education and rescue methods when handling juveniles, and that they make full use of the special prevention and correction function of conditional non-prosecution for youth involved in minor cases, Zhang said.

From 2018 to September this year, 63,000 people were exempt from prosecution with conditions; 169,000 juveniles were prosecuted; and 1,877 juveniles were prosecuted due to violating regulations and refusing to repent during the probation period of conditional nonprosecution.

Through customized conditions and whole-process supervision and investigation, the effectiveness of precise help and education has been improved. More than 97 percent of non-prosecuted juveniles are on the right path, the report said.

"Special protection and leniency for juveniles in accordance with the law is not indulgent," Zhang explained.

"Juveniles who commit crimes with deep subjective malignancy, cruel means and serious consequences will be resolutely punished," he said, adding that such efforts serve to educate society and act as a deterrent to would-be criminals.

Zhang said procuratorial organs have also shown zero tolerance for crimes against minors and suggest heavy punishment for such offenders.

In the process of handling cases, the judicial concepts and case-handling rules are constantly being improved, including those in which minors are forced to participate in organized crimes, school violence and sexual assault, he said.

From 2018 to September this year, 47,000 adults involved in crimes against minors were sentenced to more than three years in prison in the first instance, accounting for 42 percent of all people prosecuted for such crimes, said the report.

"Procuratorates also work closely with other departments to deepen the rectification and prevention for possible harms to minors at the source, such as improving the mechanisms for preventing sexual assault, sexual harassment and bullying in schools," he said.

In 2020, the SPP worked with the ministries of education and public security to establish the system of mandatory reporting of assaults on minors and the entry inquiry system for occupational practitioners involved with minors.

Prosecutors nationwide have handled about 3,700 cases against minors via the reporting system, and minor-related institutions fired about 4,400 people with criminal records after using the inquiry system.

The report also calls for enhancing the construction of the rule of law in the minor-protection sector, and updating the protection methods and concepts for minors, as the crimes committed both by and against minors are on the rise.

From 2018 to 2021, procuratorates prosecuted 249,000 juveniles, an average annual increase of 8.3 percent. The top prosecuted crimes of minors were theft, affray, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, robbery, rape and intentional injury, said the report.

About 232,000 people were prosecuted for crimes against minors from 2018 to 2021, an average annual increase of 6.1 percent. Sexual assault has been the most prominent crime against minors.