Juvenile Protection and Delinquency Prevention Policies in China

Date01 December 2004
Published date01 December 2004
DOI10.1177/00048658040370S104
Subject MatterArticle
Juvenile Protection and Delinquency
Prevention Policies in China
Dennis
S.W.
Wong
City University
of
Hong
Kong,
Hong
Kong, People’s Republic
of
China
his paper describes the laws designed especially for the purposes of
T
protecting juveniles and preventing delinquency in China.The Juvenile
Protection Law
I99
I
and Preventing Juvenile Delinquency Law
I999
have
defined the duties, responsibilities and authorities which by law parents
or
guardians of a juvenile have in relation
to
the welfare, right of educa-
tion and juvenile justice. This paper discusses the changes of juvenile
justice in relation
to
the enactment of the new laws. In particular, the
author relates the new prevention law
to
the existing Chinese model of
delinquency control and how the new law affects this model.
It
is
found
that with the promulgation
of
new prevention law, there
is
a shift from an
informal
to
a more formal direction of delinquency control where there
may be an increase of custodial outcomes for juvenile delinquents.
There has been little international literature on China’s juvenile justice and delin-
quency law reform. Hindered
by
the nation’s tight control of information-sharing,
China’s scholars and government officials seldom join in or present papers at crimi-
nological conferences. Although there has been some updated literature which
discusses juvenile justice and its new development in China at national or regional
symposiums over the past
20
years, most of
it
is in Chinese and aims to describe or
praise the laws rather than reviewing them objectively (Chang, 1992; Chen, 1989;
Fei et al., 1987; Wang,
1991;
Zhao, 1996). But with the greater openness in China’s
political economy and a more clearly stated intention to build links with its
counterparts in the world, international scholars may be able to access useful infor-
mation more easily. English written literature discussing legal and criminological
matters in China has become more common in recent years (Clark,
1989;
Curran
&
Cook, 1993; Jolley, 1994; Leng
&
Chiu, 1985; Macbean, 1995; Ogden, 1992;
Rojek, 1989,
2001;
Tanner, 1999; Troyer et al., 1989; Wong,
1999).
We have seen scholars discuss general crime control policies and the functions
of social control agents in China (He, 1991; Jolley, 1994; Rojek, 1989, 2001;
Tanner,
1999;
Troyer et al.
1989).
Other scholars have focused on juvenile justice
and delinquency control measures (Biddulph,
1993;
Curran
&
Cook,
1993;
Kuan
&
Brosseau, 1992; Wong,
1999).
From this literature, scholars generally found that in
Address for correspondence: Associate Professor Dennis
S.
W.
Wong, Department
of
Applied
Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
PR
China. E-mail: ssswwong@cityu.edu.hk
52
THE
AUSTRALIAN AND
NEW
ZEAIAND JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
VOLUME
37
SUPPLEMENT
2004
PP.
52-66
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