Analysis On The Criminal Boundary Of Parental Disciplinary Authority

In our country, it is an issue always disputed by scholars that whether or not parents enjoy the disciplinary authority to their minor children. However, according to the history of parental disciplinary authority, the relevant provisions of the existing law, the current situation of exercising disciplinary authority frequently by parents and the support from sociology and psychology, we can see that parents can enjoy disciplinary authority, but there are some rules and regulations that parents have to obey when they exercise of rights. The rules and regulations include the premise of exercise,the way to exercise and the principles of exercise. If parents don’t obey the rules and regulations, they will be charged with disciplinary authority abuse,meanwhile,they probably bear civil liability,administrative responsibility or criminal responsibility. However, due to the impact of the concept, which is “Law does not enter the house”. In addition to other reasons such as concealment of family space that is difficult to find facts of the crime, and the victims do not want to denounce the wrongdoings of the parents, and the dilemma of subjective cognizance. Criminal law hold negative attitude towards parental disciplinary authority abuse because of the reasons above. This make against the protection of the lawful right and interests of the minor children. It rebels the international general principle that the best interests of children. So it is necessary to increase the intensity of penal code to punish the parental disciplinary authority abuse and break the tradition of "law does not enter the house". The criminal law should insist on considering the principle of maximizing benefits for child development as judgment standard, when they adjust the behavior of disciplinary authority abuse by parents. Criminal law adjustment must regard the constitution as guide, and follow the principle of legality, criminal constitution theory and the principle of unification of legal effect and social effect. Criminal law must strictly differentiate the use of crime of abuse, crime of insult, crime of false imprisonment and crime of intentional injury.In order to discuss the issue of criminal law boundary about parental disciplinary authority, this article is divided into four parts, and the total number of characters is 47,000.Part one mainly introduces the concept and character of parental disciplinary authority. On the premise of affirming the parents can enjoy the disciplinary authority in our country, the word “parents” is limited to father and mother, paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents and adult blood elder brothers and sisters in this article. And the article points out that parental disciplinary authority derive from the rights and obligations which parents educate their minor children. When minor children have wrong behaviors, parents give physical and mental pain to them through the way of conduct or omission in order to make them correct evil doings and revert to good deeds. We call this “obligation right”.Part two mainly discusses the rules of exercising parental disciplinary authority. It points out that the exercising of parental disciplinary authority should make the “wrongdoings” of the minors, namely, the minors’ harming of their physical and mental health according to the existing laws and regulations or ethics as the precondition; exercising modes include act and omission; the exercise should respect the human dignity of minors, adapt to the physical and mental development of minors and follow the principle of proportionality. In addition, the exercise of the right must be timely and the parents should inform them of the reasons for their errors and the correct standards of behavior. Parents should not give them reward immediately after a discipline.Part three introduces the abuse and responsibility of parental disciplinary authority. After analyzing the serious situation and harm of abuse of parental disciplinary authority, it discusses the civil, administrative and criminal responsibility of abuse of parental disciplinary authority the parents may undertake and highlights the difficulty of criminal cognizance of parental disciplinary authority due to the impact of the concept that “law does not enter the house”, the concealment of family space which makes it difficult to find criminal facts, the victims’ unwillingness to accuse their parents and the difficulty in subjective cognizance.The fourth part discusses the criminal regulation of the abuse of parental disciplinary authority. It points out that the criminal law should be involved in family autonomy, but it should make the principle of maximizing the interests of children’s growth as the judgment standard, stick to the stand and principle of the constitution as the guide, the principle of legality, criminal constitution theory and the principle of unification of legal effect and social effect. It also discusses the specific application of the crimes(crime of abuse, crime of insult, crime of false imprisonment, crime of intentional injury) that the abuse of parental disciplinary authority may violate and points out that the principle of suiting punishment to crime, the principle of maximizing the interests of children’s growth and the concept of restorative justice should be adhered to when measuring criminal penalty.