The Reasons For Torture And Preventive Measures

Along with implementation of the strategy of ruling the country by law, constant deepening of socialist legal system building, and constant enhancement of people's law consciousness, the issue of criminal judicial justice has drawn more and more attention. Criminal judicial justice implies substantial justice and procedural justice. Procedural justice is a difficult, weak and hot point in law enforcement and judicial reform. In judicial practice, extorting a confession by torture is a big problem, violating judicial procedural justice. Much useful academic research has been done on how to reduce extorted confessions by torture. This paper outlines the historical evolution of extorting a confession by torture, compares both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign cultures and criminal judicial systems, analyses the causes of extorting a confession by torture, and thus, proposes judicial reform measures to realize modern fair and civilized law enforcement.This paper is divided into three parts.Part One: The historical evolution of extorting a confession by torture is explained from the angle of Chinese social development history.Part Two: Through comparative studies on ancient and modern, and Chinese and foreign cultural traditions, national and personal characters and current litigation systems, multiple causes for extorting a confession by torture, which repeatedly happen in spite of repeated bans, are analyzed in terms of traditional cultures, human nature, China's current inquisitional procedure mode, rules for accepting evidences, conditions of act.Part Three: By drawing on the useful experience of the international community in preventing extorting a confession by torture and taking into account China's reality, measures are proposed for reducing and even eradicating extorted confessions by torture. The measures include giving suspects the right to silence, implementing the ideology of presumption of innocence, perfecting the rules for accepting evidences, strengthening legal constraints on criminal case investigators, and executing compulsory isolated interrogations of suspects and defendants by inquiring officers.