Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No. 64

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, adopted at the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on December 26, 2020, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force on June 1, 2021.

Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

December 26, 2020

Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency

(Adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on June 28, 1999; amended in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency at the 29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on October 26, 2012; and revised at the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on December 26, 2020)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Education on Delinquency Prevention

Chapter III Intervention in Misbehaviors

Chapter IV Correction of Serious Misbehaviors

Chapter V Prevention of Re-offending

Chapter VI  Legal Liabilities

Chapter VII Supplementary Provision

Chapter I  General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is formulated for the purposes of safeguarding the physical and mental health of juveniles, cultivating their good conduct, and effectively preventing illegal acts by juveniles and juvenile delinquency.

Article 2 The prevention of juvenile delinquency shall be based on the education and protection of the juveniles, adhere to the principle of prevention first and intervention in advance, and hierarchical prevention, intervention, and correction of juveniles' misbehaviors and serious misbehaviors shall be conducted in a timely manner.

Article 3 In the prevention of juvenile delinquency, the personal dignity of juveniles shall be respected, and the right of reputation, right of privacy, personal information, and other legal rights and interests of the juveniles shall be protected.

Article 4 The prevention of juvenile delinquency shall be conducted under the organization of the people's governments at all levels in a comprehensive way.

State organs, people's organizations, social organizations, enterprises, public institutions, residents' committees, villagers' committees, schools, and families, among others, shall respectively assume their responsibilities and cooperate with each other, work together to effectively prevent juvenile delinquency, eliminate various negative factors that give rise to juveniles' illegal and criminal activities in a timely manner, and create a favorable social environment for the physical and mental health and development of juveniles.

Article 5 The duties of people's governments at all levels in the prevention of juvenile delinquency shall be as follows:

(1) Developing work plans for the prevention of juvenile delinquency;

(2) Organizing the work of the prevention of juvenile delinquency by the departments of public security, education, civil affairs, culture and tourism, market regulation, cyberspace affairs, health, press and publication, film, radio and television, judicial administration and other relevant departments; 

(3) Providing policy support and fund guarantee for the prevention of juvenile delinquency; 

(4) Inspecting the implementation of this Law and the work plans; 

(5) Organizing and carrying out the publicity and education on the prevention of juvenile delinquency; and

(6) Other duties for the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Article 6 The State shall strengthen the development of special schools and provide special education for juveniles with serious misbehaviors. Special education is an integral part of the national education system and an important protective and punitive measure for the education and correction of juveniles with serious misbehaviors.

The people's governments at the provincial level shall incorporate the development of special education and special schools into their plans for economic and social development. The local people's governments at or above the county level shall set up steering committees for special education and reasonably construct special schools according to their needs.

A steering committee for special education shall be composed of education, civil affairs, finance, human resources and social security, public security, judicial administration, people's procuratorate, people's court, communist youth league, women's federation, working committee for the care of the next generation, special schools, and other entities, as well as lawyers, social workers and other personnel, and shall study and determine the teaching, management, and other relevant work of special schools.

The specific measures for the construction of special schools and special education shall be developed by the State Council.

Article 7 The public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts, and judicial administrative departments shall designate special institutions or special personnel who have received special training and are familiar with the physical and psychological characteristics of juveniles to be responsible for the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Article 8 The communist youth leagues, women's federations, labor unions, disabled persons' federations, working committees for the care of the next generation, youth federations, students' federations, young pioneers and relevant social organizations shall assist the people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments, people's procuratorates, and people's courts in effectively preventing juvenile delinquency, and cultivate social forces and provide support and services for the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Article 9 The State shall encourage, support and guide social service agencies and other social organizations to participate in the work relevant to the prevention of juvenile delinquency, and strengthen supervision over their work.

Article 10 No organization or individual shall instigate, coerce, or induce any juvenile into committing misbehaviors or serious misbehaviors, or provide conditions for juveniles to commit the aforementioned acts.

Article 11 Juveniles shall abide by the laws and regulations as well as norms of social and public morality, establish the awareness of self-esteem, self-discipline and self-improvement, enhance the ability to distinguish right from wrong and protect themselves, and consciously resist the temptation and infringements of all kinds of misbehaviors and illegal and criminal acts.

Article 12 For the prevention of juvenile delinquency, studies on adolescent education, psychological care, psychological correction, and the delinquency prevention measures shall be strengthened in consideration of the physiological and psychological characteristics of juveniles at different ages.

Article 13 The state shall encourage and support the discipline development, major setup, talent training, and scientific research related to the prevention of juvenile delinquency, and conduct relevant international exchanges and cooperation.

Article 14 The state shall commend and reward organizations and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Chapter II  Education on the Delinquency Prevention

Article 15 The State, society, schools and families shall strengthen education on the core socialist values for juveniles, carry out delinquency prevention education, strengthen juveniles' concept of the rule of law, and make juveniles establish the awareness of abiding by disciplines and laws and preventing illegal and criminal activities, and improve self-control ability.

Article 16 Parents or other guardians of the juveniles shall be directly responsible for the education on the delinquency prevention, and shall perform the guardianship duties according to the law, establish a sound family style, and cultivate juveniles' good conduct; and where they find juveniles' mental or behavioral abnormalities, they shall learn the situation in a timely manner and conduct education, guidance and admonition, and shall not refuse to perform or be slack in performing the guardianship duties.

Article 17 The administrative departments of education and schools shall incorporate delinquency prevention education into schools' teaching plans, and guide faculty members in adopting various means to provide targeted education on the delinquency prevention for juveniles in light of the characteristics of juveniles.

Article 18 Schools shall employ full-time or part-time teachers to engage in the rule of law education, and may employ vice principals and out-of-school legal counsellors in charge of the rule of law education from judicial and law enforcement organs, legal education and legal service institutions, and other entities.

Article 19 Schools shall have full-time or part-time mental health education teachers to conduct mental health education. Schools may cooperate with the professional mental health institutions in light of the actual circumstances in establishing a mental health screening and early intervention mechanism to prevent and solve students' psychological problems and problems of abnormal behaviors.

Schools shall strengthen communication with parents or other guardians of juvenile students, and work together to effectively provide education on mental health for juvenile students; and where they find that juvenile students may suffer from mental disorders, they shall immediately notify their parents or other guardians of sending them to relevant professional institutions for diagnosis and treatment.

Article 20 The administrative departments of education shall, jointly with the relevant departments, establish a system for prevention and control of student bullying. Schools shall strengthen routine safety management, improve the working process for detecting and handling of student bullying, and strictly investigate and promptly eliminate all kinds of hidden dangers that may lead to student bullying.

Article 21 The administrative departments of education shall encourage and provide support for schools to employ social workers to be stationed in schools on a long-term or regular basis to assist in the moral education, rule of law education, life education and mental health education and to participate in the prevention and handling of student bullying and other behaviors.

Article 22 The administrative departments of education and schools shall introduce scientific and reasonable educational methods by holding lectures, seminars, training and other activities, and guide faculty members, parents or other guardians of juvenile students in effectively preventing juvenile delinquency.

Schools shall inform the parents or other guardians of juvenile students of the plans for education on delinquency prevention. Parents or other guardians of juvenile students shall cooperate with schools in providing targeted education on delinquency prevention for juvenile students.

Article 23 The administrative departments of education shall include the effects of delinquency prevention education into the annual assessment of schools.

Article 24 The people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments, people's procuratorates, people's courts, communist youth leagues, young pioneers, women's federations, disabled persons' federations, and working committees for the care of the next generation, among others, shall, in light of the actual circumstances, organize and carry out various forms of publicity and education activities for the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Where conditions permit, legal education bases for juveniles may be established so as to provide rule of law education for juveniles.

Article 25 The residents' committees and villagers' committees shall actively carry out targeted publicity activities for the prevention of juvenile delinquency, assist the public security organs in maintaining the public order around schools, keep abreast of the information on guardianship, school attendance and employment of juveniles within their jurisdictions, and organize and guide community social organizations to participate in the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Article 26 The youth palaces, children's activity centers and other places for out-of-school activities shall take education on delinquency prevention as an important work, and carry out various forms of publicity and education activities.

Article 27 Vocational training institutions and employers shall, when providing vocational training for juveniles who have attained the age of 16 and are ready for employment, include the education on delinquency prevention into the training contents.