Crime rules 'hard to follow'(2)

Budget constraints

Questions also exist over the standards and funding for background reports on offenders and on the presence of appropriate adults during the young person's contact with the justice system. As it stands, Fu said, it is unclear where the money is meant to come from, how much should be spent and who is qualified to be an appropriate adult.

In Beijing's Chaoyang district, college law school professors usually compile reports that look at a young person's family and education background and are presented to prosecutors and judges. However, in Haidian district it is mainly social workers who do this job.

"I'm told Haidian prosecutors spend 2,000 yuan ($320) per report, but we (in Chaoyang) pay just 500 yuan," Fu said.

Yue from the municipal procuratorate confirmed the capital has no rules on who should compile the reports, which under the revised law are not compulsory, nor do the reports feature in the city's judicial budget.

The same goes for appropriate adults, who are required at all questioning if a youth's legal guardian is unavailable.

Last year, 325 people acted as appropriate adults as part of a pilot program in Beijing. They mostly included lawyers and social workers, yet Yue insists a standard needs to be set and legal training provided.

"Some social workers have responsibility but are short on experience or have no legal knowledge," she said, adding that training also requires money from the government.

"Generally, the revised law sets out principles for dealing with juvenile offenders, but the more specific guidelines there are, the better for prosecutors," Yue added.

Enforcement is key

Despite the challenges, most legal experts agree Beijing and Shanghai are already seeing progress. Yet for smaller cities and rural areas, the new rules on juvenile crime are proving harder to enforce, according to prosecutor Zhou Liwen.

His city, Changsha, capital of Hunan province, still has no specialized office or any examples of cases in which the revised articles have been used, he said.

"In some low-level courts, prosecutors don't pay attention to juvenile crime and sometimes ignore the special procedures for youths," he said, explaining that too few people are shouldering too many cases.

City authorities are studying how to better implement the law, but Zhou conceded, "prosecutors generally lack awareness of how to protect a young person's rights".

Wang Ping, managing director of the Chinese Society for Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Research, the only NGO in China that specializes in helping young offenders, echoed the concerns of Zhou and the prosecutors in Beijing.

He said there are blind spots in the revised law and there is still a long way to go to fill in the blanks. But he welcomed the progress on juvenile work in the country.

"We need more research, especially in rural areas," he said. "Our shortcomings now will be helpful to perfect the law and contribute to our future work."

"After all, we cannot write all things in one article. A law's creation needs much time and is complicated. I hope the authorities can take more practical measures and give training to grassroots workers," he added.