Research On The Improvement Of The Criminal Record Sealing System For Minors

In 2012,the Criminal Procedure Law established the sealing system of juvenile criminal records,which clearly stipulated the criminal records of juveniles who were under 18 years old,sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of less than 5 years and exempted from criminal punishment when they committed crimes.They must be sealed up according to law.Unless there is a legal basis,no unit or individual can access these records.However,because the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law and relevant judicial interpretations on the sealing system of juvenile criminal records are too loose,and the provisions of the implementation rules vary from place to place,coupled with the lack of effective guidance,the sealing system of juvenile criminal records has failed to achieve the expected effect in judicial practice.In May 2022,the two departments jointly issued the Implementation Measures on the Sealing of Juvenile Criminal Records.On this basis,the sealing system of juvenile criminal records was further improved,and the sealing decision subject,execution subject and sealing scope were clarified.It also lists several specific cases of unsealing in detail,and establishes a model for courts and procuratorates to apply ex officio and for minors and their legal representatives to actively apply for the sealing of criminal records.In order to ensure the smooth progress of criminal case detection,the procuratorial organ should play an important legal supervision role in criminal case detection.Although the form of proof of no criminal record and the letter of confidentiality commitment have been unified,there are still many problems in the sealing system of juvenile criminal records.For example,there is no distinction between criminal intent and negligence,the query conditions are too loose,and there is no effective test period.At the same time,the provisions of the minors’ criminal record sealing system are not consistent with other relevant laws and regulations,which,to a certain extent,causes the implementation effect of the system to be greatly reduced.In addition,the imperfection of the post-relief mechanism may make it difficult to guarantee the legal rights of the delinquent minors to return to society.Based on the research and analysis of the relevant systems of juvenile criminal record sealing systems in foreign countries,and combined with the implementation of the system in China,this article discusses how to further improve the mechanism of juvenile criminal record sealing in China.First of all,it puts forward the view of distinguishing subjective intention and negligence in juvenile delinquency.The trial period shall be reasonably set according to the seriousness of minor crimes,and the query conditions of the query subject shall be refined to effectively limit the behavior of querying criminal records;Secondly,in order to ensure the effectiveness and operability of the juvenile criminal record sealing system,we should strengthen the connection between the juvenile criminal record sealing system and other relevant laws and regulations;Thirdly,in order to ensure the effective operation of the system,it is suggested to develop a clearer accountability mechanism to ensure that the responsibility for leaking criminal records is effectively investigated.Finally,the system value of juvenile criminal record sealing system can be brought into full play by improving the relief.