Legislators look to simplify system and reduce incidence of juvenile crime. Cao Yin reports.

Ten months after her 10-year-old daughter was killed by a teenage boy in Dalian, Liaoning province, He Meiling was informed that she was eligible to receive compensation of 1.28 million yuan ($188,000) from the offender's parents.

Instead, she wants to see the young man punished by the courts for the intentional homicide.

"I don't want to spend time and energy on civil litigation and payment. I'll continue to push for criminal punishment for the killer," she told Knews, a media organization in Shanghai, after Dalian's Shahekou District People's Court announced the ruling on Aug 10.

It will be hard to achieve her goal, though, because the boy was 13 when he committed the crime and under Chinese law the age of criminal responsibility is 16. Instead of facing a court, the teenager is undergoing a three-year reeducation program in Dalian.

According to the law, children ages 14 to 16 can be held criminally liable if they commit violent crimes, including intentional homicide, rape, robbery or arson, or serious offenses such as trafficking or selling drugs. Minors within that age bracket who commit less serious crimes are rarely prosecuted.

Meanwhile, offenders age 14 and younger are exempt from criminal punishment, even if they commit serious crimes.

"This means most young offenders, especially those age 14 and younger, are not held criminally liable and jailed, even though they may have committed serious violent offenses," said Yuan Ningning, a senior researcher in children's studies at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.

The Dalian case sparked great concern about juvenile crime. Many people, including some legal professionals, suggested the laws be amended to lower the age of criminal responsibility. So far, though, there has been no consensus about what that age should be.

Yuan believes that focusing on the age of offenders may not be a good way to reduce juvenile crime.

"We will have to deal with offenders who are younger than the age limit, no matter what the age of criminal responsibility is," he said.

In his view, it is more important to effectively rehabilitate young offenders by helping them acknowledge and understand their mistakes. Moreover, it is essential to provide timely integration of social resources, such as those related to education, psychology and public security, to help get offenders back on track.

Last month, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, reviewed a draft revision of the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency.

The draft is expected to provide stronger management of offenders who are younger than the age of criminal responsibility by ensuring that they are sent to reform schools for corrective education.

Tong Lihua is a lawyer and director of the Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center, a social services organization that provides legal aid for minors and researches related issues. He said he was pleased to see legislators responding to public concerns, but did not feel the proposed measures would provide the answer.

"I don't think reform schools that are allowed to correct both criminal minors and children with serious misconduct (issues) will alleviate the problem of juvenile crime," he said.

"Instead of blindly lowering the age of criminal liability, we should improve our system to prevent minors from committing crimes. If not, we will be acting irresponsibly."

TV drama

In June, The Bad Kids, a TV drama, attracted widespread attention and acclaim in China.

The story begins with math teacher Zhang Dongsheng pushing his parents-in-law to their deaths from a mountain in a small town in Guangdong province.

The murders are accidentally videotaped by three preteens－a girl and two boys－who are climbing the mountain.

They plan to sell the tape to Zhang so they can pay medical bills for the girl's younger brother, but events spiral out of their control with tragic consequences.

Critics and audiences applauded the drama for its intelligent plot, which examined the reasons behind juvenile crime such as parental neglect and a lack of familial control.

"Juvenile crime is a complicated social problem that people from all walks of life must help fight and prevent," Yuan said.

Tong, from the children's center, recalled a case his law firm handled five years ago, when a 13-year-old boy took a 19-month-old girl from her young brother and then raped and strangled her to death on grassland outside the Beijing West Railway Station.

While he is still shocked by the memory of the teenager's violent behavior toward a baby, Tong noted that minors have also harmed adults intentionally.

For example, in 2018, a 12-year-old boy in Hunan province stabbed his 34-year-old mother to death with a knife after a quarrel.

Statistics from the Supreme People's Court, the top court, show that from January 2016 to December 2017, most juvenile crimes involved theft, robbery and intentional injury, and more than 68 percent of offenders were middle school students.

Late last year, the SPC noted that juvenile crime had declined for nine consecutive years. Despite that, Tong said it is still hard to prevent many antisocial activities, including bullying in schools, because young offenders are not given effective reeducation, which leads many to offend again.