The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League issued specifications for minors' justice social work services on Friday, aiming to protect the rights and interests of juvenile victims as well as offenders.
In February 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League signed an agreement to explore a working mechanism for social support in improving judicial protection of minors, strengthening crime prevention and the protection of minors' rights and interests, so as to accumulate experience in building a social support system.
In April 2019, the SPP and the Central Committee of the CYL launched a pilot program to build a social support system for minors' work in 40 regions across the country.
In October 2021, demonstration projects of the social support system were carried out in 80 regions, and Capital Normal University was commissioned to develop specifications for the minor's justice social work services.
While handling cases, local procuratorates and the Communist Youth League organs have steadily promoted the participation of social organizations and social workers in the education, correction, protection and assistance of minors involved in cases, said Na Yanfang, head of the SPP's ninth procuratorial office.
"The social workers and organizations can provide multiple aspects of help to minors' cases, such as social investigations, legal aid, skills training, psychological counseling and family education guidance, further improving the quality and effectiveness of judicial protection for minors and helping them return to normal life smoothly," said Na.
Since October 2021, prosecutors and social organizations and social workers have provided assistance for 85,000 minors who were involved in crimes, covering 88 percent of prosecuted juvenile suspects. They also protected and assisted about 30,000 minors who were victims in minors-related cases, according to SPP.
Yue Wei, head of the Youth Rights and Interests Department of the Central Committee of the CYL, said that in practice the handling of some complex juvenile cases involves multiple departments, making it difficult to rely on a single department to complete the work, and requiring full coordination of different parties of society.
The implementation of the judicial protection system for minors is inseparable from social workers of juvenile affairs. So far, Communist Youth League organizations at all levels have trained and contacted 233,500 social workers for youth affairs, nearly 30 percent of whom are social workers for juvenile justice, said Yue.
In one typical case released by the SPP, in February 2021 a 16-year-old youth surnamed Duan attacked two people without reason and caused minor injuries to them in Beijing.
In August 2021 the procuratorate of the Haidian district of Beijing accepted the case and decided to adopt conditional non-prosecution for him, with a trial period of six months.
While handling the case, prosecutors entrusted a social work agency for adolescents in Beijing to carry out assessments to provide a basis for follow-up help and family education guidance.
Social workers' assessment reports showed that Duan used to perform well in school and the community. His parents' divorce and bad behaviors and habits had a major impact on Duan's behavior.
Later, prosecutors and social workers conducted a regular interview with Duan every month, helping him return to the normal track of study. His parents also received an official admonishment and were urged to correct their behaviors and received family education guidance. In March 2022, Duan passed the trial period and the procuratorate decided not to initiate prosecution.
