Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

SHENZHEN courts have convicted 2,999 people in juvenile crimes between 2015 and 2019, making up 2.08 percent of total convictions, a white book released by Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on International Children’s Day showed.

Compared to 5,364 convictions between 2010 and 2012 that made up 7.32 percent of the total, the number of juvenile criminals between 2015 and 2019 has greatly reduced.

Juvenile delinquency in Bao’an and Longgang districts made up 73 percent of the total underage crimes in 2015-2019, and among them 97.5 percent did not have Shenzhen permanent residence permits.

Of the convictions, more than 50 percent were given noncustodial penalties.

The major crimes by juveniles were theft, robbery, causing trouble, intentional assault and drug possession. Theft made up 32 percent of total crimes.

Of the total crimes, 90 percent were committed by people aged 16-18 years old and 97 percent were male.

In 2019, the city witnessed a 43-percent increase in cases infringing upon the rights of juveniles compared with 2018.

In 2018 and 2019, the courts heard 865 such cases, in which 741 cases were sexual assaults with 821 underage victims of rape and harassment, the white paper showed.