The move comes as China grapples with an increase in juvenile crimes by school children, including murder charges and suicides due to mental health issues.
Three children arrested after classmate dies in northern China
Three children arrested after classmate dies in northern China
Last month, three middle school students in Hebei province near Beijing are suspected of murdering and burying a 13-year-old classmate who they had allegedly bullied for years. All three suspects are under the age of 14.
Citing an autopsy report, local police said the victim had injuries to her head, face and back and that the killing appeared to be “premeditated.”
The case shocked the country and sparked intense debate on Chinese social media about laws regulating juvenile perpetrators of serious crimes.
Mainland China lowered the minimum age for criminal punishment from 14 to 12 in 2021. However, China’s top prosecutorial body, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, still needs to decide whether these suspects should stand trial.
Last year’s annual report said juvenile delinquency cases in China were on the rise, indicating a trend of crimes being committed by “minor” perpetrators.
In one case, a 12-year-old boy was accused of killing a 4-year-old girl by pushing her into a cesspit last year in central Hubei province. The case was dismissed earlier this year because the boy was deemed “incapable of criminal responsibility” at the time of the incident.
According to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, from 2018 to 2022, police referred 327,000 minors, or persons under the age of 18, to prosecutors, an average annual increase of 7.7%. Among these, the number of crimes committed by persons under the age of 16 increased by an average of 16.7% annually.
However, the data showed that the prosecution rate of minors has decreased.
Rising rates of suicide among teenagers are also causing concern. Data released last year by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that although the overall suicide rate for all age groups has declined, the suicide rate among 5- to 14-year-olds quadrupled between 2010 and 2021.
“Domestic violence and educational pressure are superficial issues, but at a deeper level, they reveal intergenerational trauma and social anxieties in East Asian families,” said Douban, China’s largest film rating site. posted by a user.
The film, the debut film from award-winning director Nik Chok Ikhim, surpassed RMB 10 million (approximately US$1.38 million) in box office receipts this week.
