The Chinese government's recent drive to stop bullying in schools has sparked a new round of debate on the need of a stricter law.
The State Council, China's cabinet, announced to launch a campaign to curb school bullying in elementary, middle and secondary vocational schools across the country, according to a notice released in early May.
Defining school bullying as intentional or malicious physical, verbal or online abuse among students, the notice required schools to offer legal and mental health education for students and to report to police any bullying cases involving crimes in a timely manner, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The notice soon triggered a public debate on possible solutions to school violence and drew attention of the country's judicial departments to the problem.
Sun Li, deputy director of the High People's Court of Beijing, called for relevant legislation, including a new law on school security, to clearly define the legal liabilities of the government, schools and families at a press conference held on Tuesday in Beijing.
Heavier punishment
Hu Wei, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, said that in many cases of school violence, the perpetrators did not receive heavy enough punishment, which lacks deterrent effect, according to a CPPCC report in March.
According to the Guangdong Provincial People's Procuratorate, from 2013 to 2015, the non-prosecution rate for campus crimes was as high as 18.6 percent, nearly five times the average non-prosecution rate for all crimes committed by juveniles. In school violence cases in Shenzhen, only 2.8 percent of the defendants were sentenced to more than three years in prison, Guangzhou-based newspaper New Express Daily reported in May.
Hu, who is also a deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences, noted that China's legislation on school violence needs to be improved as the punishments for juveniles breaking the law are too lenient, citing the case in which three Chinese students were accused of kidnapping and torturing a female Chinese student in Los Angeles, the US as an example.
In January, the three students were sentenced by a Southern California criminal court to 6, 10 and 13 years in prison, respectively, and will be repatriated to China after serving their sentences.
Deng Hong, attorney for one of the perpetrators, said that in the US, the judge could consider trying a juvenile as an adult for severe offenses, the China Newsweek magazine reported.
However, the transfer law in the US, under which juveniles can be transferred to the adult system in cases involving some severe offenses, may not lead to a desired effect, Wan Daqiang, a Beijing-based lawyer specializing in child protection, told the Global Times.
"Too heavy punishments may cause self-abandonment of some young people," contributing to recidivism, Wan noted.
Wan added that protection for juveniles should be the top consideration in dealing with such cases as "we punish the astray young people in the hope of helping them return to the right path."
Campus supervision
If school bullying was not properly solved, it would have lasting negative influence on the perpetrators, victims and witnesses, Tong Xiaojun, dean of the Research Institute of Children and Adolescents at the China Youth University for Political Sciences, told the Global Times, warning that "the victims might become perpetrators after developing the habit of solving problems via violence."
According to statistics from the Beijing high court, in nearly 10 percent of the bullying cases, the perpetrators had been victims themselves and after being bullied, sought revenge by attacking others due to a lack of guidance, Sun noted.
The presence of teachers in bullying-prone areas and at bullying times, such as the recess, should be encouraged, Tong suggested.
She noted that "an anti-school violence mechanism should be established in the education system."
School social workers with professional knowledge should be introduced to primary and middle schools, Tong explained.
Legal education should also be enhanced to inform students of the legal consequences of certain behavior, Li Meijin, a criminal psychology professor at Chinese People's Public Security University, told the Global Times.
In school bullying cases, 68 percent of the defendants admitted they knew little about laws and regulations covering school violence, Sun said.
