Problems And Countermeasures Of Criminal Punishment Related To Epidemic Prevention And Control Crimes

The outbreak of COVID-19 plunged the public into panic and social order into chaos in a short time.In the face of such a chaotic situation,some criminals seem to smell the smell of fish,and illegal and criminal acts related to epidemic prevention and control have begun to spread.The relevant departments both quick to jointly formulate and publish "about in accordance with the law will punish afore-mentioned coronavirus pneumonia epidemic prevention and control of the illegal crime opinions"(hereinafter referred to as "the prevention and control advice"),in time for the trial practice to punish breach of epidemic prevention and control crime provides guidance.On the one hand,the "Prevention and Control Opinions" was formulated in a short time after all,so it is inevitable that there are some places that have not been fully considered.Especially,it was issued at the early stage of the outbreak of COVID-19.With the outbreak of COVID-19 entering the critical period,there are constantly new ways of committing crimes,which undoubtedly presents new problems to the punishment of criminal law.On the other hand,in the trial practice,there are some wrong practices in the punishment of crimes related to epidemic prevention and control.In general,the related problems mainly exist in some criminal behaviors that are more frequent during the COVID-19 period and focus on cracking down on them,as well as those behaviors that have not been included in the scope of criminal law evaluation but the infringement of legal interests caused by them cannot be ignored.In terms of conviction,there is a phenomenon of "heavy conviction and light punishment" in the trial practice regarding the qualitative problem of behaviors that cause the COVID-19 virus transmission risk.The unreasonable restriction on the criminal subject of the crime of endangering public security by dangerous means in the "Prevention and Control Opinions";The identification of the subjective aspect of the act is problematic.The above factors combined lead to the existence of misunderstanding in the qualitative of this kind of behavior.We should strictly follow the principle of statutory punishment for a crime,avoid the thinking of "heavier conviction than punishment",and accurately identify the crime according to law.When it comes to the violation of citizens’ information on epidemic prevention,we should not ignore the associated infringement of legal interests caused by the act behind the epidemic prevention and control,and should include the act in other serious circumstances of the crime of violating citizens’ personal information to be evaluated.In the issue of violent injury to doctors,the legal interests of doctors’ special status and hospital diagnosis and treatment order are ignored,and the behavior of violent injury to doctors is improperly equated with ordinary violence,which makes most of the violent injury to doctors not reaching the degree of minor injury but causing bad effects escape from criminal punishment.During the epidemic period,medical personnel should be interpreted as "state organ staff" or "Red Cross staff",so as to identify the violent injury of medical personnel less than the result of minor injury as a crime of obstructing official duties,thus achieving the purpose of complete protection of medical personnel.In terms of sentencing,although the "Prevention and Control Opinions" clearly stated that crimes committed during the epidemic period should be dealt with strictly and severely in accordance with the law,it did not specify the specific proportion of the punishment,leading to the confusion of the proportion of the punishment in the crime of fraud related to epidemic prevention and control.In the form of judicial interpretation,the sentencing standard within the same sentencing interval should be refined by referring to the "ladder electricity price".The detailed sentencing standard can be considered by referring to the object of fraud,the way of fraud behavior,the purpose of the proceeds of fraud and other factors.To sum up,based on the trial practice,involving new crown epidemic prevention and control crime punishment there is a mistake and the prevention and control advice is not compatible with trial practice problems in the analysis and argument,put forward countermeasures for more scientific and reasonable punishment of criminal law,and for the new crown outbreak of epidemic prevention and control and possible future event accumulation on epidemic prevention and control experience in criminal law to punish crime.