Treat delinquents with kid gloves

Six members of the "Church of the Almighty God", a cult organization, recently beat a woman to death in Zhaoyuan, Shandong province, because she refused to join their order. Although five of the six suspects have been arrested, the sixth cannot be taken into police custody because he is less than 14 years old.

Late last year, a 10-year-old girl in Chongqing "tortured" a one-year-old boy and threw him from the 25th floor. In this case, too, the judicial authorities decided not to prosecute her because she was less than 14 years old.

With the media frequently exposing juvenile delinquency, some people have urged the government to lower the minimum age at which a person can be charged for a crime, which remains a controversial issue across the world. A government fixes the minimum age of criminal responsibly based on the physical, emotional and intellectual maturity of juveniles in the country, as well as other social factors such as tradition, culture, education and economic development levels.