On The Legislative Perfection Of The Crime Of Kidnapping

As a form of crime that seriously infringes the personal rights of citizens,the crime of kidnapping has been stipulated in the Criminal Law since 1997,after the "Criminal Law Amendment Seven"(hereinafter referred to as "Criminal Law Amendment Seven")and "Criminal Law Amendment Nine"(hereinafter referred to as "criminal law nine")two amendments.Through these two revisions,the minimum statutory penalty of kidnapping crime has been reduced,the circumstances of sentencing have been refined,and the important legislative support has been provided for judicial practice.However,due to the extensiveness and complexity of judicial cases and the difficulty of the crime of kidnapping,the existing provisions on the crime of kidnapping still can not fully meet the needs of judicial practice.Therefore,in view of the problems in practice,it is particularly important to study and analyze the legislative defects of the crime of kidnapping.Through combing the typical cases of the crime of kidnapping in practice,it is not difficult to find that,this crime has the following outstanding problems in the judicial practice:It is difficult to identify the kidnapping behavior of the minor who has reached the age of 14 but has not reached the age of 16(hereinafter referred to as the minor aged between 14 and16);The punishment of minor kidnapping is still too heavy,and the fine behavior is different and difficult to implement,the gradient of punishment is too ambiguous,these new situations need to be further improved.The root of the problem lies in the defects of the norms themselves,that is,the following problems exist in the legal provisions on the crime of kidnapping in the Criminal Code: Firstly,the provisions on the subject of crime are unscientific.;secondly,the regulation of "stealing infants and young children" is not perfect yet.Specific performance for the lack of special protection of infants.The third paragraph of the crime of kidnapping only stipulates the theft for the purpose of extorting property.How should the theft for the purpose of adoption,debt collection,etc.Be Determined? At the same time,if the actor committed the act of robbing the infant for the purpose of extorting property,how should it be recognized in practice? None of these conditions can be relied upon.Third,the starting point of statutory sentence is notperfect.For example,the murder,whose social harmfulness and violence are no less serious than the crime of kidnapping,has a statutory minimum sentence of three years in prison,which is significantly higher than the statutory starting point for the crime of kidnapping;again,the stipulation of property penalty in kidnapping crime is unreasonable.The property penalty in kidnapping crime is "compulsory punishment system”,which can not meet the needs of practice flexibility obviously.Finally,the existing kidnapping crime lacks corresponding legal penalty gradient,and the penalty provision is too single.Therefore,it is necessary to start from the norms themselves,in view of the provisions of the crime of kidnapping for appropriate amendments,there are mainly the following five suggestions: First,the proposed expansion of the crime of kidnapping subject,14-16-year-old minors included in the crime of kidnapping subject;Second,improve the relevant provisions of the act of stealing infants and young children,improve the counts of the crime of kidnapping,add the counts of the crimes,so that the circumstances in practice can not be convicted according to law;third,reduce the starting point of punishment for the crime of kidnapping,to reduce the statutory threshold of punishment for the crime of kidnapping to three years ‘imprisonment in order to maintain the consistency within the Criminal Law System;to abolish the mandatory punishment system for property punishment for the crime of kidnapping and to apply different levels of statutory property punishment according to different purposes of the crime,fifth,set a certain sentencing gradient,improve the crime of kidnapping in the aggravating circumstances of the relevant statutory punishment.