The Reflection And Reconstruction Of The Age For Criminal Responsibility

The legalese"criminal capacity"is firstly originated from the"freedom of will theory"of the western criminal classical school. The scientific definition of criminal capacity has been recognized by every country's criminal laws all over the world. Currently, the common views of the criminal law hold that the criminal capacity is one of the constitutive requirements of the constitution of crime in the Continental Legal System and is a crucial part of"imputation"of the constitution of crime in the Continental Legal System. In this essay, I will begin with the criminal liability, take the criminal capacity as the starting point, and analyze and explain the successes and failures of the provisions of the age for criminal responsibility of our country from the root.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion, in which the introduction elaborates the research background and research significance of this thesis.In this essay, the definitions of the criminal liability, the characteristics of the criminal liability, the recognize ability and control ability and the age for criminal responsibility are explained; and then the scientific definition of the age for criminal responsibility is dissertated in detail and the related legislation of the age for criminal responsibility of our country is reflected; combining with the legislative tradition of the ancient China, this essay specifically expound the scientific definition of the criminal capacity of old people and the practical evidence of adding the age for criminal responsibility of the old people; finally, this essay expounds how to construct the criminal capacity and the age for criminal responsibility of our country as it ought to be and puts emphasis on elaborating the basis of such a construction. The construction of the criminal capacity and the age for criminal responsibility of China not only provides protection of the disadvantaged groups, reflecting the individualization principle of the punishment and requirement of humane punishment, but also indicates the changes in the basic value orientation of punishment, which contributes to the correspondence and completeness of the structure of criminal law. It can not only save the judicial resource but also promote the publics'recognition of the laws. At the meantime, in this essay, the related legislative suggestions about the age for criminal responsibility of the minors and the old people are specifically provided from the aspects of the criminal substantial laws and criminal procedural laws.The main body is divided into five chapters. The first chapter respectively and briefly explains the definitions of criminal liability, criminal capacity and the age for criminal responsibility and differentiates the relationship among the three legislative terms.The second chapter respectively discusses the provisions of the age for criminal responsibility from every country's criminal legal norms. The discussion will develop from four points: (1). The definitions of the age for criminal responsibility of the minors in the foreign laws; (2). The definitions of the age for criminal responsibility of the old people in the foreign laws; (3). The definitions of the age for criminal responsibility of the minor in the Chinese laws; (4). The definitions of the age for criminal responsibility of the old people in the Chinese laws.The third chapter summarizes and reflects the problems of the age for criminal responsibility in Chinese judicial practices and proposes the practical evidence of lowering the starting point of the age for criminal responsibility of the minors and adding the age for criminal responsibility of the old people.The forth chapter fundamentally reconstructs the criminal capacity of our country: to divide the"criminal capacity"described in the general provisions of Criminal Law into two concepts"criminal ability"and"abilities related to criminal liability and criminal sentence"; to explain the"criminal ability"by attributing it to the criminal theory system and to explain the"abilities related to criminal liability and criminal sentence"by attributing it to the criminal liability range. This construction as it ought to be will avoid the unnecessary ambiguous meanings between the punishment theories and the legislative terms and will help the judicial practitioners judge the individual cases in practice.The fifth chapter constructs the age for criminal responsibility of our country as it ought to be. The construction is the important reflection of the individualization of punishment and the requirement of humane punishment. It will be helpful to the correspondence and completeness of the structure of Criminal Law and to save the judicial resources. It will also indicate the changes in the basic value orientation of Criminal Law and add the publics'recognition of the laws.In this essay, I will raise some self-opinions and innovative views on the scientific definition of the age for criminal responsibility of our country, which are hoped to be beneficial to the further and in-depth researches on the problems like scientifically defining of the age for criminal responsibility of our country, adding age for criminal responsibility of old people, lowering the starting point of the age for criminal responsibility of the minors, etc.