Children are not criminally responsible for committing crimes and do not need to go to jail? This view is actually one-sided and irresponsible - usually when we talk about children, we refer to minors under the age of 14, but the international Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as anyone under the age of 18. According to the provisions of my country's "Criminal Law", minors who are over 12 years old and under 16 years old who commit crimes need to be held criminally responsible for specific crimes; minors who are over 16 years old who commit crimes should be held criminally responsible.
1. Children under the age of 12 commit crimes. Children under the age of 12 who commit crimes may be exempted from criminal punishment because they are at the age of full criminal responsibility, but their parents or other guardians must be ordered to discipline them; When necessary, special corrective education can be carried out in accordance with the law; special corrective education should be evaluated and approved by the special education steering committee, and implemented by the education administrative department in conjunction with the public security organ. In addition, the guardian must bear corresponding liability for adverse custody and bear civil liability for the consequences of the child's criminal behavior.
2. Children who are over 12 years old but under 14 years old commit crimes. Children who are over 12 years old but under 14 years old are guilty of intentional homicide, intentional injury, causing death, or committing a particularly cruel crime. If the means cause serious injury and severe disability, and the circumstances are egregious, prosecution shall be approved by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and criminal liability shall be investigated in accordance with the law.
3. A minor who is over fourteen years old but under sixteen years old commits a crime. A minor who is over fourteen years old but under sixteen years old is guilty of intentional homicide or intentional injury causing serious injury or death. Anyone found guilty of eight crimes, including rape, robbery, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, and placing dangerous substances, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.
4. People who have reached the age of 16 shall bear criminal responsibility for committing crimes. Our country’s criminal law clearly stipulates that the age of criminal responsibility is 16 years of age. That is, any person who has reached the age of 16 shall commit any of the crimes stipulated in the criminal law. All criminal acts shall bear criminal responsibility. The reason why the age of sixteen is used as the limit is because after this stage, minors have actually developed a certain degree of physical strength, intelligence, and social knowledge, and have the ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, and therefore, They should be required to bear criminal responsibility for all their criminal acts. In the final analysis, we still have to use the summary of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "White Paper on Prosecution of Minors" to conclude - when the Internet has a huge impact on minors, minor crimes have increased, and family custody issues have become more prominent, minors can grow up healthily. The social environment needs to be optimized, and the protection of minors still has a long way to go. Therefore, while we have a holiday today, we also remind all guardians not to neglect the legal education of their children. We also hope that through more popularization of laws, we can work with everyone to protect the healthy growth of children.