Abstract
At present, many countries have lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility to deal with the trend of juvenile crime. In practical terms, whether countries advocate for lowering the age of criminal responsibility along with early puberty, or regulating the minimum age of juvenile criminal responsibility through their policies, their deep-rooted hypothesis is that age is tied to adolescents’ psychological growth, and, with the rise in age, the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy gradually improves. With this study, we aimed to test whether this hypothesis is valid. The participants were 3,208 students from junior high school, senior high school, and freshman in the S province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We subjected the gathered materials to independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), linear regression analysis, and Bonferroni post hoc test. The influence of the age variable upon dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy was significant (p = 0.002, p = 0.000, p = 0.072), but only empathy was positively correlated with age variable (B = 0.032); dialectical thinking ability (B = −0.057), and self-control ability (B = −0.212) were negatively correlated with the age variable. Bonferroni post hoc test confirmed these findings. Therefore, we concluded the following: (1) Juvenile criminal responsibility, based on the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy, is not positively correlated with age. (2) Age is not the only basis on which to judge a juvenile’s criminal responsibility. (3) More research that directly links age differences in brain structure and function to age differences in legally relevant capacities and capabilities(e.g., dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy) is needed. (4) Political countries should appropriately raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and adopt the doli incapax principle in the judicial process.
Highlights
On October 24, 2019, a 13-year-old boy in Dalian in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) killed a 10-year-old girl and dumped her body in his home in a brutal manner (Xue et al, 2019)
The results of correlation tests showed that the influence of the age variable upon dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy was significant, but only empathy was positively correlated with age variables
This basically disproves the underlying hypothesis that countries should set a minimum age of criminal responsibility for juveniles, and indicates that the capacity for appreciation and self-control is positively correlated with age (H2)
Summary
On October 24, 2019, a 13-year-old boy in Dalian in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) killed a 10-year-old girl and dumped her body in his home in a brutal manner (Xue et al, 2019). Faced with the exposure of many younger malignant criminal cases, some countries and regions have chosen to implement strict laws for juvenile offenders; that is, to lower the age of criminal responsibility, so as to try to achieve the goal of social defense by cracking down on juvenile delinquency. Facing the rising trend of juvenile delinquency, the South Korean government is trying to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 13 (Hong, 2020). On December 22, 2020, at the 24th session of the 13th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the PRC, an amendment (XI) was made to the criminal law to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility for the murder and aggravated assault that causes death from 14 to 12 years old (NPC, 2020)
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