Establish a mandatory reporting system for cases of violations against minors
Nine departments issued a document to improve the comprehensive prevention and protection system for minors
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Liang Chen, an intern in this newspaper
From 2017 to 2019, a total of 121,400 people were arrested for crimes against minors, and 161,100 people were prosecuted. Among them, 47,600 people were arrested and 62,900 people were prosecuted in 2019, up 40.76% and 32.62% respectively from 2017.
The above data comes from the "White Paper on Procuratorial Work for Minors (2014-2019)" (hereinafter referred to as "White Paper") issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate on June 1.
Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the State Supervision Commission and other nine departments issued the "Opinions on Establishing a Mandatory Reporting System for Violations of Minors (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"). In response, reporters from the "Legal Daily" conducted interviews.
Violent crime rises sharply
Mandatory reporting system introduced
The "White Paper" shows that the characteristics of violent crimes against minors have become increasingly prominent.
In 2017, the procuratorial organs filed the top six indictments for crimes against minors. The numbers are 7550 for rape, 6445 for theft, 5010 for intentional injury, 4918 for robbery, and 4265 for provocation. There were 4,014 crimes involving traffic accidents, and six types of crimes accounted for 67.84% of the total number of prosecutions.
In 2019, the number of crimes of theft and traffic accidents decreased significantly, while the number of indecent children and gathering crimes increased sharply during the same period. The top six were rape, provocation, indecent children, robbery, gathering fights, and intentional injuries. 62.22% of the total number of public prosecutions are all violent crimes.
According to Xie Pengcheng, director of the Procuratorate Theory Institute of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in recent years, judging from the cases of crimes against minors prosecuted by the procuratorate, not only has the number of cases been running at a high level and continued to increase, but there are also a large number of reports, delays and even reports Not reported. Some local procuratorial organs, such as the People’s Procuratorate of Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou, are acutely aware of the seriousness and universality of this problem and took the lead in exploring the implementation of a mandatory reporting system for cases of violations against minors, which has achieved remarkable results and formed a wealth of local experience. .
From the perspective of Wu Xumeng, a lawyer from Xinrui Linyang Law Firm in Guizhou, there are three main points in the background of the "Opinions": First, the actual needs. In many remote mountainous areas of our country, parents go out to work, and left-behind minor children are not well cared for. In recent years, minor sexual assaults have occurred frequently. Second, the timing is ripe. The issuance and implementation of the "Opinions" is a bottom-up process. Previously, the mandatory reporting system had been implemented in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places with good results. The third is national attention. The protection of minors is one of the requirements of ruling the country according to law, so applying the mandatory reporting system to protect minors is not only a protection of human rights, but also a branch of the entire framework of ruling the country by law and protecting the interests of the people.
Establish accountability incentive mechanism
Highlights are operable
"Establishment of a compulsory reporting system for cases of violations against minors in my country is a pioneering initiative and a successful example of effective participation of procuratorial organs in social governance." Xie Pengcheng said.
The "Opinions" make it clear that state organs, various organizations authorized by the law and regulations to exercise public power, and public officials prescribed by law, have close contact with various organizations and their employees in the minor industry and have the obligation to report cases of violations of minors, And clearly stipulate the scope of "close contact with minor industry".
At the same time, it stipulates nine types of situations that should be reported such as sexual assault, abuse, bullying, abandonment, and trafficking, and stipulates that “suspected” situations should also be reported. of.
"The "Opinions" have also established a supervision and accountability mechanism for the implementation of the system, as well as the necessary incentive mechanism." Xie Pengcheng said that relevant functional departments should supervise and guide the implementation of the mandatory reporting system in the competent industry and field. The procuratorial organ shall conduct legal supervision on the implementation of the mandatory reporting system. In particular, the supervisory committees at all levels do not attach importance to the mandatory reporting work of public officials for a long time, and will fail to implement the mandatory reporting system according to the regulations and will be held accountable, and investigate and deal with the suspected crimes and crimes.
In order to eliminate the ideological concerns of the reporting obligation subject to retaliation, the "Opinions" stipulates that the reporter shall not bear the corresponding legal responsibility for disputes caused by the report. Those who report the case in time to avoid serious consequences shall be commended and rewarded. The relevant department shall keep the information of the informant confidential.
In Wu Xumeng's view, the highlights of the "Opinions" are mainly reflected in the four "clear" mentioned.
One is to clarify the main body of reporting obligations. Previously, some departments or units may lack the awareness of reporting when encountering such incidents. This “Opinions” clearly stipulates departments such as enterprises and institutions, education, medical care, child welfare institutions and rescue agencies, hotels, village committees and other departments Units have compulsory reporting obligations, so departments and units at all levels are required to increase awareness, and report violations of children in a timely manner. If the reporting obligations are not fulfilled, these units must also bear legal responsibility. In addition, the clarification of the main body of the report can also make the relevant departments and units more responsible.
The second is to clarify the situation that should be reported. The "Opinions" clarify nine cases of juvenile abuse, and even include suspected situations that should be reported, which can correspond to each other in actual operations.
The third is to clarify the matters that should be paid attention to during the reporting process in order to facilitate the identification and verification of the case materials.
The fourth is to clarify the accountability mechanism. If there is a case report, but the public security organ fails to file a case or the judicial organ does not act, it shall bear corresponding legal responsibility.
"Although there are only 23 opinions issued this time, there is no redundant one. Each one is tightly focused on how to solve the problem and is grounded and has strong operability." Wu Xumeng said.
Source prevention and timely detection
Effectively punish illegal crimes
What impact and significance does the "Opinions" have?
"This move will enhance protection awareness, strengthen obligation fulfillment, and form effective protection." Xie Pengcheng believes that the healthy growth of minors is related to the future of the country and the nation. Establishing a mandatory reporting system and forming a minor protection mechanism with source prevention, timely detection, efficient emergency response, and punishment according to law are of great significance for maintaining social harmony and stability and long-term national stability.
Xie Pengcheng said that the significance is mainly manifested in three aspects: first, to respond to the concerns of all walks of life, establish a mandatory intervention mechanism against minors, and improve the comprehensive prevention and protection system for minors in society.
Second, extend the juvenile judicial protection mechanism to social governance, so that the public security organs and the judiciary can promptly find clues that minors have been violated, improve fixed evidence, effectively punish illegal crimes, and allow the minors who have been violated to receive timely, Effective psychological intervention and judicial assistance have comprehensively improved the ability and level of protection of minors.
Third, integrate the resources and forces of various departments to form a good situation for the protection of minors in an inter-departmental linkage and orderly connection. It can be expected that with the general implementation of the mandatory reporting system, while raising the awareness of the responsibility of relevant units and personnel, it will further enhance the awareness of the protection of minors of the broad masses of the people, gather social consensus, and create a more intensive care and protection for the entire society. Adult atmosphere.
Talking about the impact of the "Opinions", Wu Xumeng believes that the minds of minors are not yet mature, so in previous cases of sexual assault and violence, they could not speak and did not know how to protect their rights. With the mandatory reporting system, even if the victim himself does not know to report, his unit needs to report after knowing the incident. For the victims, the implementation of the mandatory reporting system can detect and intervene in time to effectively prevent the occurrence of adverse events.
In Wu Xumeng's view, the mandatory reporting system can crack down on illegal acts in a more timely and efficient manner. Parents, schools, hotels, hospitals, etc. all need to report after they know the victim has been infringed, which can effectively crack down on the perpetrator.
"The Opinions help to form a common linkage mechanism to protect the healthy growth of minors. Whether the judiciary or guardians, the entire society needs to raise awareness of the fight against crimes against minors, and the introduction of opinions will help the whole society Form a good atmosphere." Wu Xumeng said.