理性对待轻罪时代

Taking A Rational Approach to the Era of Misdemeanors

面对我国犯罪数据所呈现的“双降双升”趋势,有学者提出“轻罪时代已经来临”的论断。然而,“轻罪时代”的实际情况是,传统以刑为主的犯罪治理模式依然未有根本性改变,立法者试图以不断增加轻罪罪名的方式来实现社会治理的目的,而司法机关也未能有效地限制刑事处罚范围,这导致我国刑事司法资源面临巨大的压力,进而引发与轻罪犯罪相关的一系列问题。这说明,轻罪时代只是对我国犯罪结构变化的概括,并非真正标志着我国进入了以刑罚轻缓化为核心的犯罪治理新阶段。鉴于此,国家应当及时转变犯罪治理理念以适应轻、重罪加速分化的现实,在立法层面上慎重增设轻罪,在司法层面上探索限制刑罚发动的机制,以及加快构建轻罪犯罪记录封存制度。

In the face of the trend of"double decreases and double increases"in China's crime data,some scholars have asserted that"the era of misdemeanors has arrived".However,the actual situation of the era of misdemeanors in China is that the traditional crime governance model centered on punishment has not yet been fundamentally changed,and the legislature attempts to achieve social governance objectives by continuously increasing the number of misdemeanor offenses,while the judiciary has also failed to effectively limit the scope of criminal punishment,which has resulted in a significant pressure on China's criminal justice resources and has led to a series of problems related to misdemeanor convictions.This indicates that the era of misdemeanors is only a summarized term of the changes in China's criminal structure,and does not really mark China's entry into a new stage of crime governance centered on lenient punishment.In view of this,China should promptly adjust the concept of crime governance to adapt to the reality of the accelerated divergence between misdemeanors and felonies,exercise prudence in creating new misdemeanor offenses at the legislative level,explore a mechanism of limiting the initiation of criminal punishment at the judicial level,and speed up the construction of a system of sealing criminal records of misdemeanors.