Analysis Of The Difficult Problems Of "routine Loans" Related To Criminals

"Trap loan",a new crime model,has emerged across China in recent years.It was first regarded as the infringement on property rights,so the criminals in such cases would be usually convicted and punished as the crime of fraud.Sometimes it was even equated with the crime of fraud in judicial practice.Amid China’s battles against gang crimes,along with the sentence of the country’s first "trap loan" criminal case involving gang crimes in north China’s Tianjin municipality in 2018,an increasing number of such cases are sweeping across the whole nation.Before this,however,some scholars who treated "trap loan" as an infringement of the property believed that this crime could not constitute gang crimes because it is not characterized by illegal control.Now,with two guidelines rolled out by China’s top court and top procurator ate,i.e.Guiding Opinions on Certain Issues concerning Handling of Criminal Cases Involving Organizations of a Gangland Nature and Gang-like Groups and Opinions on Several Issues concerning the Handling of "Trap Loan" Criminal Cases,a consensus on handling such crimes has been reached.In some local courts,however,there are still improper conviction and ambiguous definition of the nature of the details in similar cases.In addition,some experts in criminal law also hold different views on the identification of violence and illegal control in the"trap loan" cases involving gang crimes.This paper is based on China’s first "trap loan" case involving gang crimes in 2018.The author first analyzes the details of the case,the focus of the controversy and statistics of similar cases to reveal the behavior pattern of "trap loan" crimes.Then,the characteristics between the gang crimes and the "trap loan" crimes are compared,thus reaching a conclusion that "trap loan" crimes can constitute gang crimes,which provides the judicial justification for the sentence of the case.Therefore,the author believes that the root cause of gang crimes’ involvement in "trap loan" cases derives from the characteristics that keep up with the new trend of gang crimes.And the key to determination of the involvement of gang crimes is whether violence is used in debt collection.What’s more,in these cases,"soft violence",cannot be mistaken for violence.Criminals shall not face harsher penalties if the harm caused by such crimes does not reach the standard of illegal control of the sinister gangs which must be distinguished from gang-like groups.This paper can be divided into five parts.The first part explains the reasons why the author chooses this topic,the research meaning and methods,and some original perspectives based on academic and practical background.The second part first introduces basic facts of the case including the process of the case and the orders made by the court of first and second instance and then summarizes the focus of the controversy and different viewpoints in existing research on such cases.The third part reveals the behavior pattern of "trap loan" cases so as to distinguish this crime from other similar ones.In the fourth part,a key part in this paper,the author makes a comparative analysis of organizations of a gangland nature,gang-like groups and criminal gangs in "trap loan" cases to figure out the defining features of "trap loan" crimes and the root cause of the involvement of gang crimes in such cases.With the contents mentioned above,the paper summarizes the key facts which can determine whether a "trap loan" case is involved with gang crimes.Finally,the paper concludes by reviewing the case and conclusions.The author also makes some comments on the sentence of this case and provides some suggestions on how to determine the nature of such crimes injudicial practice.