Research On The Adjustment Punishment Of China

"The criminal policies largely affects criminal legislation and judicature,including the adjustment of the structure of punishment." In order tothoroughly implement and practice the criminal policy of combining punishmentwith leniency and to cope with the severe criminal stress under the circumstanceof structral reformation and social transformation, the11th Standing Committeeof the National People’s Congress passed Amendment (VIII) to the Criminal Lawof the People’s Republic of China, which came into effect on May1st2011. Thisamendment focuses on the improvement of the legal rules about death sentencein the general provisions of criminal law, and adjusts the construction of deathpenalty, life imprisonment and fixed-term imprisonment on the purpose ofbuilding reasonable of punishment. Regarding the issue of Amendment (VIII) asan entry point, this paper analyses the improved punishment comparing with thedevelopment in history, aiming at successfully deducing the reasonability ofthe adjustment.This paper is consisted of about28,500Chinese characters and devided intofour parts:Following the historical clues of the punishment, Part1comb the traceto its source. It is devided into five periods including the punishmentstructure in the primitive period, the punishment in the period of slavery,in the feudal period, in the contemporary China before the establishment of NewChina, and the punishmentin New China. By tracing to the source of thepunishment, we can conclude, the punishment structure has always been developingby time, and has a overall tendency towards lighter punishment. Thus, theamendment of the criminal law has to keep abreast of the times and follow thetrend. Part2focus on the combing of the amendment on the punishment structurein Amendment (VIII), including:1. the adjustment of punishment system,involving the deletion of the death sentence for13accusations, strict controlof the commutation for the death sentenced probationers, and the initialestablishment of community correction system and the improvement of publicsurveillance;2. the adjustment of the penalty measurement system, involvingthe amendment and perfection of mitigating circumstances, recidivism system,voluntary surrender system and meritorious performance system, the system ofconcurrent punishment for several crimes, and probation system;3. theadjustment of the penalty execution system, involving the amendment of thecommutation and parole system, and criminal record reporting system.Comparing Amendment (VIII) with the previous seven amendments, Part3organize the particular adjusting path of the amendments based on the trait ofAmendment (VIII), and do further analysis and research on the specificamendments.In allusion to the adjustments and the path discussed in Part2and Part3, Part4analyse the reasonability of the adjustments of punishment. By themeans of adjusting, we have basically shaped it centering on free penalty withdistinct levels including death sentence, life imprisonment, fixed-termimprisonment, public surveillance and detention, with the help of accessorypunishment and other punishment measures, which work together to achieve thepurpose of criminal laws on protecting human rights and punishing crimes.