Its setting is mainly for the following reasons:
(1) The purpose of punishment is to prevent crimes, and one of the contents of prevention is to make criminals stop committing crimes. After committing a crime, the offender does not commit a crime within a certain period of time, which shows that the danger of committing another crime has been relatively eliminated.
(2) The judicial department needs to concentrate on handling current criminal cases. The current crime is relatively more harmful to society. Therefore, the prescription system can make criminal justice concentrate on dealing with current criminal cases. If there is no limitation system for prosecution, the judicial organs will have a backlog of old cases, which will affect the handling of current cases and hinder the timely crackdown on crimes.
(3) It can save manpower. Material resources. Financial resources. Punishing crime is a huge and arduous task, which requires a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. Not prosecuting criminals who stop committing crimes after a certain period of time can save a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, and use the limited manpower, material resources and financial resources in urgent need and in time.
Legal basis:
Article 87 of the criminal law
After the following time limit, the crime will not be prosecuted:
(1) Five years have passed if the statutory maximum penalty is less than five years of fixed-term imprisonment;
(2) Ten years if the statutory maximum penalty is fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years;
(3) Fifteen years if the statutory maximum penalty is fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years;
(4) Twenty years have passed if the maximum legal punishment is life imprisonment or death penalty. 20 years later, if it is deemed necessary to prosecute, it shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Procuratorate for approval.