Research On The Age Of Juvenile Criminal Responsibility

In recent years,juvenile delinquency in China has become a phenomenon of young age and violence.As the current criminal law stipulates that under 14 years old is the age of no criminal responsibility,many minors who commit serious crimes can escape the punishment of the criminal law.However,age is only the external standard to judge whether the actor has criminal responsibility,and the criminal responsibility ability hidden behind him is the fundamental.The capacity of criminal responsibility refers to the ability of identification and control required by the criminal law in order to bear the criminal responsibility when the actor violates the provisions of the criminal law.Therefore,the premise for minors to bear criminal responsibility is the ability to recognize the significance of their own ACTS in the criminal law and the ability to control their own ACTS according to their own consciousness.The legislator assumes that minors with a biological age of 14 begin to gradually acquire this ability.However,with the rapid development of our country economy level and the continuous improvement of the quality of education,age minors has reach the age of 12 basic mature,in intelligence to use logical thinking to judge whether their actions conform to the requirements of the law,and have been able to adjust and control their own behavior and emotion,self control ability basic shape.It isrecalled that the eight crimes of criminal responsibility in China are all intentional crimes,not ACTS caused by negligence or overconfidence.Of intentional homicide,intentional injury,the two may be due to the impulse of the behavior to cause serious injury or death to the victim should bear criminal responsibility,and the other six kinds of crimes,rape,robbery,drug trafficking,arson,explosion,poisoning requires the person have a clear cognition and under the strong subjective intend to complete.At present our country from a first grade began to let children accept simple legal system education,in the process of children's growth,along with the gradual maturity and understanding of the moral developmental level continuously improve,minors under 14 years old has been able to understand the meaning of the abstract rules and can according to the free will to decide their own behavior,thus completely with criminal responsibility ability required by the criminal law.Therefore,the starting point of setting 14 years old as the minimum age of criminal responsibility has lagged behind,and the appropriate lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility is more conducive to the ducation and protection of teenagers.