Reform schools can dent juvenile crime, experts say

Authorities should encourage parents to send children who have broken the law to reform schools to stamp out criminal behavior at an early age, according to prosecutors and child protection experts.

Public security departments once had the authority to order children under 16 who commit minor crimes to attend reform school without consent from their parents.

But the law was revised in 1999. Currently, the young offender, the parents and the child's school must first agree to the move. The change has led to decline in the number of students at reform schools, experts said at a forum in Shanghai on Saturday.