宽严相济刑事政策下降低刑事责任年龄问题研究——以《刑法修正案(十一)》为视角

Research on Reducing the Age of Criminal Responsibility under the Criminal Policy of Temper Justice with Mercy —On the View of “Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China”

2020年12月26日《刑法修正案(十一)》正式通过,此次修正案最大特色之一是就未成年人刑事责任年龄做出下调规定,这在坚持宽严相济的刑事政策指导的基础上对当前社会上频发的低龄未成年人恶性犯罪案件做出了刑事立法上的回应。现行《刑法》第17条将刑事责任年龄下调的同时,又对低龄未成年人犯罪追究其刑事责任设置了诸多条件限制,不难看出,该条规定在总体上坚持做到了宽严相济,但在某些规定方面却呈现失衡化从宽表现。因此本文就宽严相济刑事政策结合《刑法修正案(十一)》第17条规定,分析当下刑事责任年龄规定应如何走向,以此更好维护社会总体利益目标。

On December 26, 2020, the Criminal Law Amendment (11) was officially passed. One of the biggest features of the amendment is to lower the age of criminal responsibility of minors, which makes a criminal legislative response to the frequent vicious crimes of young minors in the current society on the basis of adhering to the criminal policy guidance of combining punishment with mercy. While Article 17 of the current Criminal Law reduces the age of criminal responsibility, it also sets many restrictions on the investigation of criminal responsibility of young minors. It is not difficult to see that this article insists on the principle of combining punishment with leniency on the whole, but shows imbalance and leniency in some aspects. Therefore, based on the criminal policy of tem-per justice with mercy, combined with Article 17 of Criminal Law Amendment (11), this paper ana-lyzes how the current age of criminal responsibility should go, so as to better safeguard the overall interests of society.