Young offenders get protection

The number of young offenders in Beijing who were exempted from prosecution has been increasing in recent years as part of an effort to guide juveniles into productive life patterns.

But leniency doesn't always work, and challenges remain, an official of the capital's top prosecuting authority said.

On the heels of the revised Criminal Procedure Law, which went into effect in January 2013, the number of young offenders who were not prosecuted in court in Beijing last year rose to 290 from 114 in 2011, figures from the city's People's Procuratorate show.