I am still offering help to young offenders

Juvenile crime was rare until 1978, when China opened its doors to the world and life became more diverse.

Young people are easily influenced by new things, positive or negative, so I heard many cases involving juveniles, especially theft, during the early 1980s. My career of helping children via the rule of law started during this period.

Although legislators included some sections about this issue in the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law in 1979, handing down prison sentences to young offenders was not as effective as we had expected. Some reoffended or even became worse after being jailed, which made us realize that prison was not an effective way of helping young people correct their mistakes.