The Study On The Criminal Responsibility Age System Of Minors In China

With the rapid development of society and the continuous progress of network technology,people are obtaining and transmitting information at an increasingly faster pace,especially minors who have early exposure to the world.As a result,negative information on the internet is bound to lead to deviations in the thinking of minors and steer them down the wrong path.Currently,a large number of criminal cases involving minors have become known to the public,and such cases are on the rise.On the one hand,many minors commit crimes in cruel and violent ways,and on the other hand,although the age at which minors engage in serious behaviors that harm society has decreased,some minors cannot be prosecuted because they haven’t reached the age of criminal responsibility.The surge in criminal cases involving minors has drawn the attention of experts and scholars because minors are the future of the country,and focusing on juvenile delinquency can effectively promote the construction of a socialist rule of law in China.First,starting from the basic theory of the age of criminal responsibility for minors,this article defines the concept of the age of criminal responsibility for minors,analyzes the historical development of the age of criminal responsibility for minors in China,and discusses the relationship between the concept and criminal responsibility and criminal liability capacity.Second,the weakness of China’s current age of criminal responsibility for minors are discussed.These include problems with the content of the regulations for the age group between 12 and 14 years old,the unreasonable scope of criminal offenses for those between 14 and 16 years old,the lack of regulation for minors under 12 who engage in serious behaviors that harm society,inadequate correctional education measures,and uncertainty in the determination of the actual age of minors.The age of criminal responsibility system cannot play its intended role.Finally,based on China’s actual national conditions,this article discusses five measures to fully leverage the age of criminal responsibility system in dealing with juvenile delinquency.These measures include supplementing relevant regulations for those between 12 and 14 years old,expanding the scope of criminal offenses for those between 14 and 16 years old,introducing a "malicious age supplementation" system,improving China’s correctional education system for minors,and establishing a bone age identification system.It is hoped that by improving China’s age of criminal responsibility system,this article can provide reference opinions for better preventing juvenile delinquency.