Comprehensive system targets root causes of juvenile crime in schools, homes and online
LIANG LUWEN/FOR CHINA DAILY
When a 15-year-old boy stood in a courtroom in Chongqing in 2004, the numbers appeared to tell a straightforward story: 41 robberies in less than a year and more than 600 yuan ($89) taken from classmates.
Then the teenager broke down.
"My parents divorced and no one cared for me. I was bullied and no one helped me. Now that I have made a mistake, everyone has come to judge me," he cried.
His words stayed with Mei Mei, a prosecutor with the Dadukou District People's Procuratorate. She began asking: If someone had intervened after the boy's first mistake, could his life have taken a different course?
Mei and her colleagues established the "Sha Jie" (Sister Sha) youth rights post, through which they visited schools and brought police, educators and civil affairs officials into juvenile crime prevention. What began with seven people grew into an alliance of over 500 prosecutors, 1,600 volunteers and 100 counselors.
The boy's case encapsulates a transformation across China over the past four decades, where juvenile justice has shifted from specialized criminal prosecution to a comprehensive system combining punishment, education, victim protection and social governance.
Ding Yongling (center) and Qin Shuangshun (right), the founding members of China's first prosecution group dedicated to juveniles, visit a school in Shanghai's Changning district in June 1986. [Photo provided to CHINA DAILY]
Pilot to prevalence
The modern system began in June 1986, when the Changning District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai created the country's first juvenile prosecution group, following the 1985 adoption of the United Nations Beijing Rules, which called for specialized juvenile justice institutions.
Ding Yongling, the first head of the Changning group, said that in the past prosecutors approached young offenders "as doctors treat patients, parents treat children and teachers treat students".
They pioneered social investigations, psychological assessments and courtroom education, challenging the practice of handling minors and adults under the same procedures.
Zhou Xiaoping, a former head of juvenile prosecution at the Hongkou District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai, said prosecutors in the 1990s increasingly realized that family circumstances, social environment and reasons for offending had to be examined before deciding how a case should proceed.
"If a child is given no opportunity and is simply dealt with harshly, the loss is not limited to one family," she said.
In one instance, a boy who was robbed later joined others in committing robbery out of legal ignorance. Instead of approving his arrest, prosecutors placed him in a rehabilitation base where he learned job skills and legal knowledge, allowing him to successfully reintegrate.
These local practices gradually gained legal and institutional backing. The Law on the Protection of Minors, adopted in 1991, established the official policy of educating, reforming and rescuing young offenders, making education the priority and punishment a supplementary measure.
That same year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate established a juvenile crime prosecution division to guide efforts nationwide. It later promoted specialized handling and restraint in arrest and prosecution where the law allowed discretion.
Following a systematic judicial interpretation in 2002, independent regional departments quickly took shape, culminating in 2019 when every provincial-level region established independent juvenile prosecution bodies. By 2021, revisions to the Law on the Protection of Minors formally required all law enforcement and judicial authorities to designate specialized teams for youth cases.
Yet specialization has never meant leniency without limits. Shi Weizhong, deputy prosecutor-general of the SPP, said the policy of education, reform and rescue does not mean tolerating serious crime. With juvenile case reviews rising from 55,000 in 2020 to 102,000 in 2024 — showing younger offenders and greater violence — prosecutors maintain that "prevention is protection, and punishment is also rescue".
In 2025, procuratorates approved the arrests of 35,000 juvenile suspects and prosecuted 56,000, including approving the prosecution of 24 suspects aged 12 to 14 for severe violent crimes.
At the same time, conditional non-prosecution was granted to 16,000 low-culpability minors accompanied by individualized supervision. In five years, more than 7,100 young offenders assisted by procuratorates went on to enter university. By 2025, juvenile crime review cases fell 9.8 percent year-on-year, marking the first simultaneous decrease in juvenile crime and crimes against minors in five years.
A group dedicated to prosecuting juvenile crime carries out a legal awareness event at a residential compound in Chongqing's Shapingba district in 1987. [Photo provided to CHINA DAILY]
Wider protection
The expanding mission of juvenile prosecutors also reaches children who are victims or at risk of harm.
In 2018, the SPP issued its No 1 Procuratorial Recommendation to the Ministry of Education after cases exposed weaknesses in campus safety, staff management and education on preventing sexual abuse, prompting stronger protection mechanisms.
That same year, Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district piloted a mandatory reporting system requiring professionals to report suspected abuse — a mechanism codified into national law by 2021. Between 2020 and 2025, nearly 17,000 cases involving crimes against minors originated from mandatory reports, with 3,852 cases in 2025 alone. Additionally, authorities were urged to hold more than 400 people accountable for failing to report serious situations.
Beyond mandatory reporting, protection efforts have expanded directly into employment screening, physical school grounds and neighborhood commercial spaces.
In Chongqing, checks on more than 60,000 education employees in 2025 identified and removed over 30 individuals with criminal records involving violent or sexual harm.
To tackle bullying and safety risks at the source, around 44,000 prosecutors now serve as legal vice-principals across nearly 80,000 schools.
Meanwhile, in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, prosecutors helped clear 3,500 gambling-like cards and unsafe prizes from shops surrounding 31 schools, while public interest lawsuits successfully restricted minors' access to esports gaming hotels.
The digital world has opened the newest frontier. After a student stole blind boxes to resell on an online platform, Shanghai prosecutors looked beyond the theft itself. Finding that the trading platform lacked age controls, they used public interest litigation to compel real-name verification and transaction limits for minors.
The Putuo district procuratorate later worked with other authorities to issue guidance for internet companies on addiction prevention, personal information and other protections.
"Wherever children go, procuratorial protection should follow," said Xu Lichun, head of Putuo district's Dandelion juvenile prosecution team. She described the modern approach as asking "a few more questions" about the roots of a case and taking "a few more steps" to correct the social or family conditions behind it.
Forty years after the first juvenile prosecution group was formed in Shanghai, the work has moved far beyond deciding whether a young suspect should be arrested or prosecuted. Its focus now extends from courtrooms to homes, schools, businesses and online platforms, reflecting a broader effort to prevent harm and help young people return to a healthier path.
