Legislative Proposals For Reducing The Age Of Criminal Responsibility

Juvenile crime is a very serious social problem worldwide/There are about 400 million of minors in China, accounting for more than one third of the population of our country.So,effective prevention and proper handling of minor crimes has been put much more attention as one of the important issues in constructing the socialist legal system. Juvenile delinquency in society today presents several new features, including the lowering trend of criminal age and the increase in violent crime.These have caused widespread concerns in the community. But how we prevent and deal with minor crimes effectively is still in much controversy. China's criminal law rules that harmful acts which are carried out by minors under the age of 14, regardless of how much damage, how serious the consequences,and how bad the circumstances, are not considered a crime. This has resulted in that a minor under 14 years of age who commits some serious act that endangers society does not bear any criminalresponsibility. However, with the development of our society, young people's mental and physical growth has changed much. So I believe that we should be cautious ,not always forgiving it in dealing with the issue of juvenile delinquency.This paper aims to studying the problem of reducing the age of criminal responsibility.In the first part, raise the issue that the age of criminal responsibility should be lowered or not from a typical case. In the second part, describe the current situation of juvenile delinquency, from the specific provisions of the age of criminal responsibility in domestic and foreign countries, to our present circumstances of juvenile delinquency ,to the causes of these features appearing. In the causes of juvenile delinquency crime, I mainly describe the two aspects from external factors and internal factors which are the basis of the lowering age of criminal responsibility. In the third part of this article, state the main points of the current discussions on this very problem, and the process of judicial practice for the treatment and front-line police's attitudes and perceptions.In the fourth, put out the need for lowering the age of criminal responsibility, and it was conducted in three main areas as follows: the development of minors' growing up, the need of their own characteristics and to implement good social effects of the law. The final part of this article is about the legislative proposals and thecorresponding security system on the issue.My main point is to lower the age of criminal responsibility of minors, and protect the rights of minors better.