Between Protection and Punishment: The Adjustment and Balance of China’s Criminal Policy on Juvenile Delinquency

Since the Amendment XI to the Criminal Law was passed, debates on China's juvenile delinquency governance have kept going on, with the juvenile homicide case in Handan being a prime example. China’s current criminal policies face a value conflict between “the best interests of the child” and “social defense necessity”, evident in contradictions in normative logic, social perception, and institutional functions, which stem from the modern transformation dilemma of the governance paradigm. Penalties, as a means of discipline and an educational tool that strengthenings norm-effectiveness via the “crime-liability” link, are essential for deterring and preventing serious juvenile crimes. But they should be an auxiliary and last-resort measure, aligned with the criminal policy of temper justice with mercy. For the approval-prosecution provisions for low-age minors, it is supposed to adhere to the “age-behavior-circumstances” three-stage review framework, clarify the criteria for “execrable circumstances”, enhance the “quasi-litigation” structure of the approval-prosecution procedure, and ensure power restraint and rights protection. Also, it is necessary to better coordinate education-correction and penalty-deterrence to promote the shift from “juvenile evil” to “juvenile redemption”.