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TSINGHUA CHINA LAW REVIEW
Rebalancing education and punishment: a doctrinal inquiry into and practical application of the juvenile-related provisions in the 2025 public security administration punishments law
Created on:2026-09-01 15:01 PV:54
By SUN Pengqing |   |   Download Full Article PDF

Abstract: The Law on Public Security Administration Punishments, revised in 2025 and entering into force on January 1, 2026, makes systematic adjustments to its juvenile-related provisions. While retaining the basic framework that exempts minors under fourteen from punishment and grants leniency to those between fourteen and eighteen, the revision substantially reshapes the rules on the non-enforcement of administrative detention, introduces a mandatory bridge to corrective education, clarifies the public security response to student bullying, and establishes safeguards, including the presence of an appropriate adult, hearings for minors, and the sealing of violation records. Through these changes, the law moves the gonvernance of juvenile public security violations away from the dichotomy of either single-track punishment or single-track non-intervention and toward a dual structure in which education and punishment operate in parallel. The core question is not whether to punish, but how to sustain intervention. This Article argues that the principle of the best interests of the minor must serve as the overarching. The policy of “education, persuasion, and rehabilitation”, together with the principle of “education-first, punishment-supplementary” must remain the basic stance. Doctrinally, protective disposition should enjoy priority of consideration, public security punishment should retain a residual but necessary space, and the concurrent application of both should be strictly confined. Operationally, case handling should proceed in the sequence of assessment first, discretion second, and continued disposition third, supported by case-based corrective education and the institutional construction of juvenile policing.