Maturing from punishment to prevention

Pilot to prevalence

The modern system began in June 1986, when the Changning District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai created the country's first juvenile prosecution group, following the 1985 adoption of the United Nations Beijing Rules, which called for specialized juvenile justice institutions.

Ding Yongling, the first head of the Changning group, said that in the past prosecutors approached young offenders "as doctors treat patients, parents treat children and teachers treat students".

They pioneered social investigations, psychological assessments and courtroom education, challenging the practice of handling minors and adults under the same procedures.

Zhou Xiaoping, a former head of juvenile prosecution at the Hongkou District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai, said prosecutors in the 1990s increasingly realized that family circumstances, social environment and reasons for offending had to be examined before deciding how a case should proceed.

"If a child is given no opportunity and is simply dealt with harshly, the loss is not limited to one family," she said.

In one instance, a boy who was robbed later joined others in committing robbery out of legal ignorance. Instead of approving his arrest, prosecutors placed him in a rehabilitation base where he learned job skills and legal knowledge, allowing him to successfully reintegrate.

These local practices gradually gained legal and institutional backing. The Law on the Protection of Minors, adopted in 1991, established the official policy of educating, reforming and rescuing young offenders, making education the priority and punishment a supplementary measure.

That same year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate established a juvenile crime prosecution division to guide efforts nationwide. It later promoted specialized handling and restraint in arrest and prosecution where the law allowed discretion.

Following a systematic judicial interpretation in 2002, independent regional departments quickly took shape, culminating in 2019 when every provincial-level region established independent juvenile prosecution bodies. By 2021, revisions to the Law on the Protection of Minors formally required all law enforcement and judicial authorities to designate specialized teams for youth cases.

Yet specialization has never meant leniency without limits. Shi Weizhong, deputy procurator-general of the SPP, said the policy of education, reform and rescue does not mean tolerating serious crime. With juvenile case reviews rising from 55,000 in 2020 to 102,000 in 2024 — showing younger offenders and greater violence — prosecutors maintain that "prevention is protection, and punishment is also rescue".

In 2025, procuratorates approved the arrests of 35,000 juvenile suspects and prosecuted 56,000, including approving the prosecution of 24 suspects aged 12 to 14 for severe violent crimes.

At the same time, conditional non-prosecution was granted to 16,000 low-culpability minors accompanied by individualized supervision. In five years, more than 7,100 young offenders assisted by procuratorates went on to enter university. By 2025, juvenile crime review cases fell 9.8 percent year-on-year, marking the first simultaneous decrease in juvenile crime and crimes against minors in five years.