Youth Crime
Crime by youth offenders has been a matter of grave concern to the post-Mao leadership. In common with most societies, nearly all those charged with violent crime have been under thirty-five years of age. Criminal law makes special provisions for juvenile offenders. Offenders between fourteen and sixteen years of age are to be held criminally liable only if they commit homicide, robbery, arson, or "other offenses which gravely jeopardize public order," and offenders between sixteen and eighteen years of age "shall be given a lighter or mitigated penalty." In most cases juvenile offenders charged with minor infractions are dealt with by neighborhood committees or other administrative means. In serious cases juvenile offenders usually are sent to one of the numerous reformatories reopened in most cities under the Ministry of Education beginning in 1978.
Read more about this topic: Prisons In China
Famous quotes containing the words youth and/or crime:
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“You punish crimes committed, with us the thought of crime is a sin; you fear the voice of witness, we the sole voice of conscience.”
—Marcus Minucius Felix (2nd or 3rd cen. A.D.)