Society

Defendants get psychological help

By Shi Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-24 07:46

SHANGHAI - Some 50 judges with qualifications in psychology will work as psychological consultants at the city's juvenile courts, the municipal judicial authority revealed on Thursday.

The 50 judges were selected from the 200-plus with qualifications as psychological consultants as the city introduced its psychological intervention system, said Shen Zhixian, vice-president of the Shanghai Higher People's Court.

These judges will do the job better than professional psychological consultants because they also have judicial knowledge and experience, he said.

"The Shanghai Higher People's Court will spend another two years giving psychology training to judges and clerks working at juvenile courts so most of them will be competent in offering psychological consultations when handling juvenile cases," Shen added.

In addition, the Shanghai Higher People's Court, together with the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, co-released on Thursday a pocket book aimed at providing legal education to juveniles through comics and stories. It will be free for junior students.

"We have printed about 30,000 pocket books this time," Shen said. "More than 100,000 yuan ($15,460) will be put into this book project every year."

Shanghai has led the way in dealing with juvenile defendants.

In December 2010, the Shanghai Higher People's Court drafted a proposed regulation on sentencingrules in juvenile criminal cases. It was the first time in China that a senior court had provided detailed guidance on sentencing in juvenile criminal cases.

The court also set up a guidance office at its juvenile court in September 2010 to coordinate work at all three court levels in Shanghai. It is still the only guidance office in the Chinese court system.

According to Zhu Miao, deputy director of the juvenile court guidance office of the Shanghai Higher People's Court, the number of sentenced delinquent juveniles dropped by 34 percent in 2010, the third year since 2008 in which the number had decreased.

The number of accused juveniles in criminal actions dropped from 11 percent during the peak time in 2007 to 4.8 percent in 2010.

Zhu also said it should be noted that the number of non-Shanghai-native delinquent juveniles has risen sharply during the same period, making up about 84 percent of all the delinquent juveniles accused in 2010.