Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Study blames juvenile crime on parents, society
CHINA continues to suffer juvenile delinquency amid negative societal influences and a dearth of parental supervision, a white paper has suggested.
Published last Tuesday in the run-up to the International Children’s Day, it looked at crimes committed by minors in Beijing in 2013.
Out of 1,097 cases, 77.4 percent of the perpetrators had received little or no education.
Although schools in Beijing have generally run legal classes in recent years, school authorities are not taking such classes seriously.
In addition, students show resentment to such lessons because they feel bored by teachers’ methods, said the report. It added that neglect by working parents, particularly migrant workers in the capital, has contributed to the situation.
A similar warning was issued last week by the Foshan Intermediate People’s Court in Foshan City of south China’s Guangdong Province.
The city reported 4,438 juvenile offenders in 3,432 cases over the past five years, and offenders in over 900 cases showed a lack of parental care, the court said.
Flowers or carnivorous plants?
Juvenile offenses have generated headlines in China in recent years, triggering widespread concern and raising questions about what turned the little “flowers of the motherland” into “carnivorous plants.”
Last Monday, Beijing police detained three young men suspected of an assault on a teenager. The violent attack spread outrage on the Internet after a clip of the beating was circulated.
In February 2013, a youngster believed to be the son of a famous Chinese singer was detained in Beijing along with four others for their alleged involvement in a gang rape.
From 2002 to 2011, the rate of recidivism among China’s juvenile offenders remained at 1 to 2 percent, according to an October 2012 white paper which also reported drops in juvenile delinquency cases and the proportion of juvenile offenders among the total criminal population.
However, China’s juvenile offender number is still high, standing at around 67,000 in 2011, according to last Tuesday’s white paper.
Experts attributed the problem to factors including negative societal influence, a lack of family attention and the unbalanced spread of education.
Zhou Keda, director of the Institute of Social Sciences with the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, said that teenagers’ overexposure to violence and sex in the media has distorted the morals of many.
As urgency for change mounts, experts have demanded joint efforts to tackle the problem. “The government should ramp up efforts to help teenagers in trouble, such as dropouts and those without jobs,” Zhou urged.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.