The System Function Of Life Imprisonment And Its Expansion

The life imprisonment system introduced in the Criminal Law Amendment(IX)is considered to be the experimental legislation for China to achieve restrictions and abolish the death penalty through alternative measures.For a long time,the academic discussion of life imprisonment has actually surpassed the definition of "criminal enforcement measures" at the current stage.Therefore,using the literature investigation,comparative research,logic analysis and value analysis research methods,in the research combination of history and logic,experience and theory,the system function of life imprisonment and its expansion and application are discussed from four aspects..First,the introduction of life imprisonment is inevitably linked to the death penalty and the life imprisonment with parole.It can be found that in our country's penalty system,life imprisonment bears more of the function of replacing the death penalty based on human rights protection.It is a combination of the death penalty completely deprives criminals of their ability to commit crimes and the humanity of life imprisonment with parole.This is also the unique difference of the life imprisonment system between the death penalty system and the life imprisonment with parole system.Second,through the comparison of the functions of the life imprisonment system between China and the United States,it can be found that life imprisonment in the sense of death penalty can achieve good results in reducing the death penalty.Exceeding this function will have a huge negative impact.Although our country's legislation gives the functional orientation of life imprisonment anti-corruption weapon and death penalty alternative measures,combined with judicial practice and theoretical disputes,the positioning of life imprisonment anti-corruption weapon is not reasonable,and there is no basis for the death penalty alternative measures for corruption and bribery crimes.Therefore,the expanded application of life imprisonment is the only strategy to achieve the replacement function of life imprisonment.It is necessary to extend the function of life imprisonment death penalty for the crime of heavy corruption and bribery to the entire criminal law system.It is of theoretical and practical significance to discuss life imprisonment in the context of restricting and abolishing the death penalty.Thirdly,In terms of the expanded application of the death penalty replacement function in our country,from the perspective of retribution theory,lifelong imprisonment has a retribution function close to the death penalty.It is not available for life imprisonment with parole or fixed-term imprisonment.It can better reflect the justice of retribution in the process of replacing the death penalty.From the perspective of prevention theory,lifeimprisonment is more likely to achieve general prevention of punishment than life imprisonment with parole.Although life imprisonment does not have the rationality under special prevention,under the comprehensive preventive view of the general prevention limit,the expansion of the life imprisonment death penalty replacement function can meet the purpose of crime prevention.Furthermore,based on retribution and based on the theory of prevention and integration,the death penalty substitution function of life imprisonment is irreplaceable in the existing system,and meets the functional requirements of the traditional concept for the death penalty,and can effectively overcome The people ' s dependence on the death penalty.Therefore,expanding the application of the death penalty replacement function of life imprisonment is the right choice for China to achieve restrictions and abolish the death penalty.Fourth,the construction of the life-saving imprisonment death penalty replacement function should be started from three aspects.First,based on the human rights movement of the international death penalty reform,formulate specific policies and plans for the death penalty reform in China,thus providing direction for the practice of life imprisonment instead of death penalty;The second is to clarify the legal nature of life imprisonment from the general level of criminal law,and prudently expand the applicable crimes of life imprisonment on the criminal law;The third is to optimize the supporting mechanism for the execution of life imprisonment penalties,and to avoid the negative effects of life imprisonment on the re-socialization of prisoners.