China applies lenient penalties as minor offenses become majority of criminal cases

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Lenient penalties have been applied to the handling of minor offenses in China, with such offenses now constituting the majority of cases concluded by Chinese procuratorates, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

In the first half of this year, over 85 percent of cases concluded by Chinese procuratorates were minor offenses, representing an increase of over 30 percentage points from 2004. The number of people involved in severe violent crimes decreased 62.5 percent during the same period, with their share dropping from 20.3 percent to 3.7 percent, SPP data shows.

Minor offenses have become the primary focus of crime management, an SPP official said, adding that procuratorial agencies have applied measures such as mediation and lenient penalties to those who have admitted their guilt and accepted their punishments.

In the first six months of this year, with the application of lenient penalties, 34.2 percent of people involved in criminal cases were exempted from arrest and 19.7 percent from prosecution, with those figures respectively increasing 26.4 and 16.7 percentage points from the same period in 2004.

Prosecutors also handled over 30,000 cases through mediation during the first half of the year, the SPP said.