Studies On The Application Of Suspended Sentences Under The Both-strict-and-lenient Criminal Policies In China

As it represents the principles of making criminal penalties socialized, individualized, humane and economical, and fully embodies the trend of increasingly applying more lenient penalties by human beings, the system of suspended sentences has been universally implemented and plays a critical role in China’s criminal law. However, the current system adopted by China has many shortcomings, such as narrow application scope, over restricted and generalized terms, unbalanced and broad contents, unreasonable institution setups, vague responsibility allocations, formalized supervision and a rather rough definition of cancellation. These defects have already hindered the proper application of suspended sentences. With criminal execution going socialized worldwide, the proposal of building a harmonious society and the implementation of both-strict-and-lenient criminal policies in China, it is necessary to review the application of suspended sentence system in China. Therefore, to broaden the scope of its application is inevitable.This paper consists of three parts:Part 1:it gives a brief introduction to the basic types of modern suspended sentences and analyzes their natures and values.Part 2:taking into consideration the both-strict-and-lenient criminal policies in China and our basic national conditions, it analyzes the status quo and application conditions of suspended sentences in China, showing the necessity of broadening the application scope of suspended sentences.Part3:it illustrates the current suspended sentences under the both-strict-and-lenient criminal policies, and makes propositions on its application conditions, objects and scope, etc.This paper analyzes the application of suspended sentences by one district courthouse from 2006 to 2009 and uses penalties related to juvenile offenders, crimes by taking advantage of duty and traffic accident crimes as examples. It makes proposals based on the analysis of the current state and reasons of suspended sentence system under the both-strict-and-lenient criminal policies in china, proving that it is necessary for China to broaden the application scope of suspended sentences.