Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Law (2021)

Promulgation Date: 2020-12-26
Title: P.R.C. Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency
Document Number:
Expiration date: 
Promulgating Entities: Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Source of text: http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202012/384d7c9763c549f59c5afd8863761643.shtml

Table of Contents

P.R.C. Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency

Chapter I:　General Provisions

Chapter II: 　Education on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency

Chapter III: 　Intervention in Negative Conduct

Chapter IV: 　Corrections of Serious Negative Conduct

Chapter V: 　Prevention of New Crimes

Chapter VI:　Legal Responsibility

Chapter VII:　Supplemental　　Provisions

P.R.C. Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency

Chapter I:　General Provisions

Article 1:This Law is drafted so as to ensure juvenile's physical and psychological health, cultivate juveniles' good conduct, and effectively prevent juveniles from breaking the law and committing crimes.

Article 2:The prevention of juvenile crime is to be based on a combination of education and protection, persist in emphasizing prevention and early intervention, and promptly conduct graded prevention, intervention, and correction of juveniles' negative behavior and serious negative behavior.

Article 3:In carrying out efforts to prevent juvenile crime, juvenile's personal dignity shall be respected, and their reputations, privacy, personal information, and other lawful rights and interests shall be protected.

Article 4:Prevention of juvenile crime is to be comprehensively addressed under the organization of the people's governments at all levels.

Government organs, people's organizations, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions,residents' committees, villagers' committees, schools, families, and so forth are to each bear their responsibilities and mutually cooperate, to jointly complete efforts to prevent juvenile crime, promptly eliminating all types of negative factors that cause juveniles to illegal and criminal conduct, and creating a positive social environment for the healthy physical and psychological development of juveniles.

Article 5:The duties of each level of people's government in efforts to prevent juvenile crime are:

(1) to formulate plans for the prevention of juvenile crime;

(2) to organize efforts to prevent juvenile crime by relevant departments such as for public security, education, civil affairs, culture and tourism, market regulation, internet information, health and hygiene, the press, publishing, film, radio, and television, and judicial administration;

(3) to provide policy support and funding safeguards for efforts on the prevention of juvenile crime;

(4) Conduct inspections of the implementation of this Law and of work plans;

(5) Organize the carrying out of publicity and education on the prevention of juvenile crime.

(6) Other duties on efforts to prevent juvenile crime.

Article 6: The state is to strengthen the establishment of specialized schools to conduct specialized education for juveniles with serious negative conduct. Specialized education is a component of the citizen education system, and are an important measure for protecting and addressing juvenile with serious negative behaviors by conducting education and corrections.

Provincial-level people's governments shall include the development of specialized education and specialized schools in economic and social development plans. People's governments at the county level or above are to establish committees for guiding specialized education and reasonably set up specialized schools as needed.

Specialized education guidance committees are to be comprised of personnel from units such as for education, civil affairs, treasury, human resources and social security, public secuirity jurdicial administration, people's procuratorate, people's courts, the communist youth league, the womens federation, the Working Committee for the Care of the Next Generation, and specialized schools, as well as lawyers, social workers and others, and are to research and determine work related to teaching and management in specialized schools.

The State Council is to provide specific measures for the establishment of specialized schools and specialized education.

Article 7:Public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts, and judicial administrative organs shall have specialized institutions or specialized personnel that have gone through professional training and are familiar with the physical and psychological characteristics of minors, responsible for efforts to prevent juvenile crime.

Article 8: The Communist Youth League, women’s federations, trade unions, Disabled Persons Federations, Working Committees for the Care of the Next Generation, youth federations, students’ federations, young pioneers’ organizations, and relevant social organizations shall assist all levels of people's governments, their relevant departments, people's procuratorates and people's courts in completing efforts on the prevention of juvenile crime, cultivate social forces, and provide support services for the prevention of juvenile crime.

Article 9: The state is to encourage, support, and guide social work service organizations and other social organizations' participation in efforts related to the prevention of juvenile crime and strengthen oversight.

Article 10:Minors must not be instigated, coerced, or enticed to perpetrate negative conduct or serious negative conduct by any organization or person, and conditions must not be provided to minors to perpetrate such conduct.

Article 11:Juveniles shall obey laws and regulations and norms of public morality, build awareness of self-respect, self-discipline and self-improvement, and increase their ability to distinguish between right and wrong and to protect themselves, conscientiously resisting all kinds of negative behavior, as well as the enticement and harm of illegal and criminal conduct.

Article 12:Prevention of juvenile crime shall combine research on physical and psychological characteristics of minors at different ages, strengthening education in puberty, psychological care, psychological corrections, and crime prevention.

Article 13:The state encourages and supports the establishment of courses and specializations in prevention of juvenile crime, the cultivation of talent, scientific research, and carrying out international exchanges and cooperation.

Article 14:The state is to give commendations and awards to organizations and individuals that have achieved notable successes in efforts on the prevention of juvenile crime.

Chapter II: Crime Prevention Education

Article 15:The state, society, schools, and families shall strengthen education for juveniles on the Core Socialist Values, carry out education on crime prevention, and increase juvenile's conception of law, to make juveniles establish awareness of complying with discipline and laws and increasing their capacity for self-control.

Article 16:The parents and other guardians of minors have direct responsibility for the minors' crime prevention education, and shall perform guardianship duties in accordance with law, establish a good home environment, and foster the minors' good character and conduct; where psychological or behavioral abnormalities are discovered in minors, they shall promptly learn about the situation and carry out education, guidance, and dissuasion; but must not refuse or be desultory in performing guardianship duties.

Article 17:Administrative departments for education and schools shall include crime prevention education in schools' educational plans, and guide teachers and staff to employ multiple methods to conduct focused crime prevention education for juveniles in consideration of the characteristics of the juveniles.

Article 18:Schools shall hire full or part-time teachers to engage in legal education, and may hire vice-principals for rule of law, or off-campus rule of law tutors from units such as judicial and law-enforcement organs or legal education and legal service establishments.

Article 19: Schools shall appoint full-time or part-time teachers on mental health education, carrying out mental health education. Based on actual conditions, schools may cooperate with professional mental health institutions to establish mechanisms for mental health screening and early intervention, to prevent and resolve issues of students with psychological or behavioral abnormalities.

Schools shall strengthen communication with minors' parents or other guardians, and jointly carry out mental health education for minors; and where discovering that minor students might have mental disorders, shall immediately notify their parents or other guardians to transfer them to a professional institution for treatment.

Article 20:Administrative departments for education shall collaborate with relevant departments to establish systems for the prevention of student bullying. Schools shall strengthen daily safety management and improve work processes for the discovery and handling of student bullying, strictly screening for and eliminating various latent factors that can bring on student bullying.

Article 21:Administrative departments for education are to encourage and support schools in hiring social workers to be stationed in the school either long-term or periodically, to coordinate and carry out ethics education, rule of law education, life education, and mental health education, and to participate in preventing and handling student bullying.

Article 22：Administrative departments for education and schools shall introduce scientific and rational education methods through methods such as lectures, symposia, training, and so forth, guiding faculty and the parents or other guardians of minors to effectively prevent juvenile crime.

Schools shall inform the parents or other guardians of minors of the crime prevention education plan. The parents or other guardians of minors shall cooperate with the schools in conducting focused crime prevention education for minor students.

Article 23：Administrative departments for education shall include the efficacy of crime prevention education efforts in schools' annual evaluations.

Article 24：All levels of people's government and their relevant departments, people's procuratorates, people's courts, communist youth leagues, young pioneers, women's federations, disabled persons federations, working committees for the care of the next generation, and so forth, shall combine actual conditions and organize or hold multiple forms of publicity and educational activities on the prevention of juvenile crime. Areas with the capacity may establish youth legal education bases to carry out legal education for minors.

Article 25：Residents' committee and villagers' committees shall actively carry out publicity activities on preventing juvenile crime and assist public security organs in preserving order around schools, promptly learning about the guardianship, schooling, and employment situation of minors in the jurisdiction and organizing and guiding the participation of social organizations in efforts to prevent juvenile crime.

Article 26：Youth centers, children's activity centers, and other places for out-of-school activities shall make crime prevention education an important part of their work and carry out various forms of related publicity and education.

Article 27：When vocational education institutions and employers conduct training to prepare minors who are already 16 years old for work, they shall include crime prevention education in the training content.

Chapter III: 　Intervention in Negative Conduct

Article 28："Negative conduct" as used in this Law refers to the following conduct by minors that is not conducive to physical and psychological growth:

(1) smoking and consumption of alcohol;

(2) repeatedly skipping class or school;

(3) not returning at night or running away from home without reason;

(4) Internet addiction;

(5) Interacting with persons in society that have negative habits, organizing or participating in groups that carry out negative conduct;

(6) entering venues that laws or regulations provide are not suitable for minors;

(7) Participating in activities such as gambling or indirect gambling, or participating in feudal superstitious or cults;

(8) Reading, watching, or listening to readings, audiovisual works, or online information that promote sex, pornography, violence, terrorist, extremist content, and so forth;

(9) Other conduct that is not conducive to minors' healthy physical and psychological growth.

Article 29：Minors' parents or other guardians who discover that minors have negative conduct shall promptly stop it and strengthen discipline.

Article 30: Where public security organs, residents' committees, or villagers' committees find that there are minors with negative conduct in their jurisdiction, they shall promptly stop them and urge their parents or other guardians to perform guardianship duties in accordance with law.

Article 31：Schools shall strengthen management and education of minor students who have negative conduct, and must not discriminate against them; where students refuse to make corrections or the circumstances are serious, schools may give sanctions or employ the following management and education measures in light of the circumstances.

(1) give discipline and guidance;

(2) require compliance with certain behavioral norms;

(3) require participation in education on certain special topics;

(4) Require participation in on-campus service activities;

(5) Require acceptance of psychological counseling and behavioral intervention by social workers or other professionals;

(6) Other appropriate management and education measures.

Article 32：Schools and families shall strengthen communication and establish mechanisms for family and school cooperation. Where schools decide to employ management and education measures for minors, they shall promptly inform their parents or other guardians; and the parents or other guardians of the minors shall support and cooperate with the school's implementation of the management and education measures.

Article 33：Where minors have acts of student bullying such as stealing small amounts or fighting, berating, intimidating, or forcefully extorting assets, and the circumstances are slight, the school may employ corresponding management and education measures as provided for in article 31 of this law.

Article 34：Where minor students skip classes or play hookey, schools shall promptly contact their parents or other guardians to learn about the situation; where there is no legitimate reason, the school and the minors' parents or other guardians shall urge them to return to school and studies.

Article 35：Where juveniles do not return at night without reason or run away from home, their parents or other guardians, or the boarding school they are in, shall promptly search for them and request help from the public security organs when necessary.

Where minors who did not return at night or who have run away from home are taken in, their parents or other guardians and their school shall be promptly contacted; where they cannot be reached, a report shall be promptly made to the public security organs.

Article 36:For minors that don't return at night, run away from home, or are on the streets, public security organs, management of public venues, and others that discover them or receive a report shall employ effective protective measures, and public security organs inform their parents or other guardians, or the boarding school they attend; and when necessary, shall escort them back to their residence or school; and where contact cannot be made with their parents or other guardians and schools, the minors shall be escorted to an aid and protection establishment for assistance.

Article 37:Where minors' parents or other guardians, and schools, find that minors organized or participated in gangs that perpetrate negative conduct, they shall promptly stop them and where they find that gangs are suspected to have broken the law or committed crimes, they shall immediately report it to the public security organs.

Chapter IV: 　Corrections of Serious Negative Conduct

Article 38："Serious Negative Conduct" as used in this Law refers to conduct by minors for which the Criminal Law has provisions but for which no criminal punishment is given because they are not yet at the age of criminal responsibility, as well as the following conduct that seriously endagers society:

(1) Acts of provocation and seeking quarrels such as group fights, chasing or blocking others, or forcibly taking and demanding, or arbitrarily damaging or occupying public or private property;

(2) Illegal possession of a firearm, munitions, or crossbows and daggers that the law provides are controlled items;

(3) fighting, insulting, intimidating, or intention harming the person of others;

(4) stealing, taking, robbing, or intentionally damaging public or private property;

(5) spreading pornagraphic publications or audio-video products, or other such information;

(6) prostitution, soliciting prostitutes, or conducting pornographic performances;

(7) Ingesting or injecting drugs, or providing drugs to others;

(8) participating in gambling for larger stakes;

(9) other actions that do serious harm to society.

Article 39:Where minors' parents or other guardians, schools, residents' committees, or villagers' committees discover that someone is instigating, coercing, or enticing minors to commit serious negative conduct, they shall immediately report it to the public security organs. Where public security organs receive reports or discover the situations described above, they shall promptly investigate in accordance with law' and shall immediately employ effective protective measures where there is a threat to minors' physical safety.

Article 40:Where public security organs receive reports or discover that minors have serious negative conduct, they shall immediately stop it, lawfully investigate and handle it, and may order their parents or other guardians to eliminate or reduce unlawful consequences and implement stricter discipline.

Article 41:The public security organs may employ the following corrective and educational measures on minors engaged in serious negative conduct, depending on the specific circumstances:

(1) give reprimands;

(2) order formal apologies or compensation for losses;

(3) order a statement of remorse;

(4) Order periodic reporting of activities and situations;

(5) order them to obey certain behavioral norms, or that they must not carry out certain conduct, have contact with certain persons, or go to certain locations;

(6) Order them to receive psychological counseling or behavioral corrections.

(7) order them to participate in social service activities;

(8) Order them to accept social care, with social organizations and relevant institutions conducting education, oversight, and discipline for minors at appropriate locations;

(9) Other appropriate correctional education measures.

Article 42:When conducting correction education for minors, public security organs may invite schools, residents' committee, villagers' committee, and social work service organizations and other such social organizations to participate as needed.

Minors' parents or other guardians shall actively cooperate with the implementation of correctional education measures and must not obstruct or interfere with or ignore them.

Article 43:Where the parents or other guardians and schools of minors with serious negative conduct are unable to control or unable to effectively control them, they may apply to the administrative departments for education, and after appraisal and consent of the specialized education guidance committee, the administrative departments for education may decide to send them to a specialized school to receive specialized education.

Article 44:Where minors have any of the following situations, then upon an appraisal and consent of the specialized education guidance committee, a decision by the administrative departments for education and public security organs may be made to send them to specialized schools to receive specialized education:

(1) Carried out conduct that seriously endangered society where the circumstances were vile or caused serious consequences;

(2) Carried out conduct that seriously endangered society multiple times;

(3) refused to accept or cooperate with correctional education measures provided for in article 41 of this Law;

(4) Other situations provided for by law or administrative regulations.

Article 45:Where juveniles carry out the conduct provided for in the Criminal Law but do not receive criminal punishments because they are under the legally-prescribed age of criminal responsibility, the administrative departments for education in conjunction with the public security organs may make a decision to send them to a specialized school for specialized correctional education upon an appraisal and consent of the specialized education guidance committee.

Provincial-level people's governments shall consider the actual local conditions and designate at least one specialized school to set up a special location as a campus or class to conduct specialized correctional education for minors provided for in the preceding paragraph.

The special locations provided for in the preceding paragraph are to implement closed management with the public security organs and judicial administrative organs responsible for efforts on the correction of minors, and the administrative departments for education are to undertake efforts on the minors' education.

Article 46: At an appropriate time every semester, specialized schools shall request the specialized education guidance committee conduct assessments of the situation for minor students receiving specialized education. Where evaluations show minors are suited for return to enrollment in ordinary schools, the specialized education guidance committee shall submit a written recommendation and the organ that made the original decision is to decide whether to return the minor student for study in a normal school.

Where the organ that made the original decision decides to return them to an ordinary school, their former school must not refuse to accept them; where due to special circumstances, making it inappropriate to return to the former school, the administrative departments for education are to arrange a transfer.

Article 47:Specialized schools shall conduct education and corrections of minors receiving specialized education sorting them by level and type, to carry out focused ethics education, rule of law education, and mental health education, and conduct vocational training based on actual conditions; and they shall ensure that minors who have not completed compulsory education continue to receive compulsory education.

Minor students in specialized schools remain officially enrolled in their original school, and where they meet the requirements for graduation, the original school shall issue a diploma.

Article 48: Specialized schools shall strengthen communication with the parents or other guardians of minors receiving specialized education, periodically giving them feedback on the corrections and education of the minor, and facilitating visits with the minors by their parents, other guardians, relatives, and so forth.

Article 49:Where minors, their parents, or other guardians are unsatisfied with an administrative decision provided for in this Chapter, they may raise an administrative reconsideration or administrative litigation in accordance with law.

Chapter V: 　Prevention of New Crimes

Article 50:Public security organs, people's procuratorates, and people's courts handling cases of juvenile crime shall conduct focused rule of law education based on the minors' physical and psychological characteristics and the circumstances of the crimes.

Where in conducting education for minors involved in criminal cases it would be conducive for their reformation and rescue to have persons such as adult relatives, teachers, or mentors participate, the public security organs, people's procuratorates, and people's courts shall invite them to participate.

Article 51:Public security organs, people's procuratorates, and people's courts handling cases of juvenile crime may conduct a social background investigation into the minor criminal suspects or defendants' upbringing, reasons for committing the crime, guardianship, education, and other circumstances, either on their own or by retaining relevant social organizations or institutions; and may conduct psychological testing based on actual need and with the consent of the juvenile criminal suspects or defendants and their legal representatives.

Social investigation and psychological testing reports may be a consideration in handling cases and educating minors.

Article 52: Where public security organs, people's procuratorates, and people's courts apply release on guarantee for minors with no fixed residence that are unable to provide a guarantor, they shall designate an appropriate adult as their guarantor, and when necessary may arrange for minors released on guarantee to receive social care.

Article 53: Juveniles who are taken into custody, arrested, shall be detained separately from adults when held in custody, arrested, or in a juvenile correctional facility shall be detained, managed, and educated apart from adults. Community corrections of minors shall be conducted separately from that for adults.

The public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts, and departments for judicial administration are to mutually cooperate with the administrative departments for education to ensure that minors with the circumstances described above who have not completed their compulsory education continue to recieve compulsory education.

Article 54: Juvenile correctional facilities and community corrections establishments shall strengthen legal education for juvenile offenders and juvenile community corrections subjects, and carry out vocational training for them based on actual conditions.

Article 55: Community corrections establishments shall inform juvenile community corrections subjects of the provisions related to mentorship placements, and cooperate with the departments for mentorship placements in implementation or resolution of juvenile community corrections subjects' academic or employment issues.

Article 56: Juvenile correctional facilities shall give advance notice to the parents or other guardians of minors being released at the completion of their sentence to arrive on time to receive them, and assist in the implementation of measures for placement for aid and education. Where they have no parents or other guardians, or there is no way to ascertain their parents or other guardians, the juvenile correctional facility shall give advance notice to the judicial administrative departments for the area of the minors' prior household registrations to arrange for personnel to receive them on time, and the civil affairs departments, residents' committees, or villagers' committees are to conduct guardianship of them in accordance with law.

Article 57:Minors' parents and other guardians, and schools, residents' committees, or villagers' committees shall employ effective aid and education measures for minors whose period for receiving community corrections or serving a sentence is complete, and assist the judicial organs and relevant departments in completing efforts on placements for aid and education.

Residents' committees and villagers' committees may hire retirees, volunteers, other persons with excellent thinking and character, upright manners, who are enthusiastic about working with minors to assist in completing the efforts on placement for aid and education provided for in the preceding paragraph.

Article 58: Juveniles who are released upon completion of their sentence and who are receiving community corrections are to enjoy equal rights with other juveniles in going back to school, advancement to higher grades, and in employment, and must not be discriminated against by any units or individuals.

Article 59: Where minors' criminal records have been sealed, the public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts, and judicial administrative organs must not provide them to any unit or individual, except where necessary for judicial organs case-handling or relevant units' inquiries made on the basis of national regulations. Units and individuals conducting inquiries in accordance with law shall preserve the confidentiality of relevant record information.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph apply to the records of minors receiving specialized correctional education or specialized education, as well as those of receiving administrative punishment or having criminal compulsory measures imposed, and of non-prosecutions.

Article 60:People's procuratorates are to conduct oversight of efforts to prevent further crimes by minors in accordance with their lawful exercise of the procuratorial powers.

Chapter VI:　Legal Responsibility

Article 61: Where public security organs, people's procuratorates, or people's courts discover in the course of handling cases that the parents or other guardians of minors who have committed serious negative conduct are not performing guardianship duties in accordance with law, they shall reprimand them and may order them to accept family education guidance.

Article 62:Where schools of their faculties and staffs violate the provisions of this law by not performing duties to prevent juvenile crime or by abusing and discriminating against juveniles, the administrative departments for education and other departments are to order them to make corrections and circulate criticism; where the circumstances are serious, sanctions are to be given to the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law. Where actions constitute a violation of public security administration, the public security organs are to give public security administrative punishments in accordance with law.

Where teachers or staff instigate, coerce, or entice minors to perpetrate negative conduct or serious negative conduct, as well as where they are ill-mannered and a vile influence, the administrative departments for education and the school shall dismiss or discharge them.

Article 63:Where this Law is violated by discrimination against relevant minors in resuming studies, advancement in school, employment, or other areas, their unit or the departments for education, human resources and social security and so on are to order corrections, and where corrections are refused, sanctions are to be given to the directly responsible managers or other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law.

Article 64:Where relevant social organizations and institutions, as well as their staffs, abuse or discriminate against minors receiving care, or where they issue fake social background investigation or psychological testing report, the departments for civil affairs, judicial administration, and so forth are to give sanctions to the directly responsible managers or other directly responsible personnel, and where it constitutes a violation of public security administration the public security organs are to give public security administrative sanctions.

Article 65: Where instigating, coercing, or enticing minors to engage in negative or serious negative conduct constitutes violations of public security administration, the public security organs are to impose public security administrative penalties according to law.

Article 66: Where state organs and their staff abuse their authority, derelict their duties, or twist the law for personal gain, the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel are to be given sanctions in accordance with law.

Article 67:Where violations of this Law constitute a crime, criminal liability is to be pursued in accordance with law.

Chapter VII:　Supplementary Provisions

Article 68:This Law takes effect on June 1, 2021.