| The recidivism system is an important system of penalty in our country.The legislative spirit of recidivism can be seen in ancient codes and records dating back to as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.The system originates from the ancient times in that the rulers generally found that such system could be an effective method in preventing and reducing crimes.It is also the consensus of the academic circle of the criminal law theory and the criminal justice practice that recidivism can effectively frighten crimes to achieve the good result of crime prevention and reduction.However,in recent years,some overseas scholars have raised doubts one after another about whether the foregoing system can effectively reduce crimes based on empirical analysis.The author has also found out in his daily work that a number of defendants are recidivists and that their proportion in the whole crime is anything but low.Therefore,the author attempts to survey the current recidivism system in our country based on the empirical analysis of the samples consisting of effective judgments in criminal cases of the first instance rendered by the court where he works in the past 12 years in order to discover certain regularities,which will provide data support forestablishment,perfection,and revision of recidivism and its corresponding system in our country.Specifically,the thesis is divided into three parts:Part One involves an analysis of the current operation of the recidivism system.In this thesis,the author analyzes 3,048 judgments in criminal cases of the first instance in total from Years 2006 to 2017 rendered by Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court to summarize and refine the general overview of recidivism,features of the identity of recidivists,and distribution of the accusations against them.The author draws the conclusion that the phenomenon of recidivism features persistence and high frequency;that the source of recidivists shows notable regional features,i.e.the number of recidivists of the floating population exceeds that of the locals;that the overall educational level of recidivists are not high;that male accounts for the majority of recidivists,most of which are young adults;that the unemployed and farmers are prone to become recidivists;that the accusations against them are comparatively concentrated;and that the number of violent crimes are higher than that of non-violent crimes.Through the intuitive analysis of the data,the initial judgment that the recidivism system cannot be efficiently operated is made.Part Two concerns an analysis of the cause for ineffectiveness of recidivism and its corresponding system.This part is actually an analysis of the intrinsic implication of the penalty system.The author finds that people superstitiously believe that the recidivism system can effectively strike and prevent crimes in that such system is thought to be able to play a role in crime prevention which can be achieved by means of isolation punishment,warning and deterrence,and prevention of recidivism.The foregoing three functions should,based on the order of time,be isolation punishment,warning and deterrence,and preventionof recidivism.However,based on our empirical analysis,we find out that isolation punishment of recidivists fails to operate efficiently;that warning and deterrence of the penalty after release is of little effect;and that the integrated mechanism of prevention of recidivism fails to operate effectively.The said three problems are the crucial cause for ineffectiveness of recidivism and its corresponding system.Part Three deals with the direction of improvement in criminal policies and the judicial practice of recidivism and its corresponding system.Meaningful suggestions are made on ineffectiveness of recidivism and its corresponding system in this part in combination with the analysis of its cause as discussed in Part Two.Firstly,regarding inefficient operation of the isolation punishment,it is recommended that accuracy and elasticity of the penalty be improved by introducing the concept of the “personal dangerousness”.Secondly,regarding little effect of warning and deterrence of the penalty after release,it is suggested that the security measures be imposed upon special personnel from the perspective of special prevention.Thirdly,regarding ineffective operation of the integrated mechanism of prevention of recidivism,it is proposed that the level of such prevention be enhanced by improving the level of socialized transformation of prisons,strengthening standardization construction of community correction,and by perfecting the methods of placement,assistance and education of recidivists so as to achieve the final results of effective prevention of recidivism. |
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