Research On Food Safety Crime Of China

Food plays an extremely essential role in people’s lives, therefore food safety concernsnational economy and people’s livelihood as well as the vital interest of the people. In recentyears, thanks to the increasing reports about food safety incidents, more and more individualsbegin paying more attention to their "safety on the tongue". As a matter of course, crimes ofendangering food safety have been drawing growing attention from educational circles ofcriminal law, and become an academic focal point.Study about crimes of endangering food safety cannot do without analysis from the basicsituation of this kind of crime,which is beneficial for deepening the understanding of this kindof crime, for application of criminal law and providing valuable help for application ofcriminal law of this kind of crime. The current situation of crimes of endangering food safetyin China is that the number is increasing year by year, the regional distribution is uneven, andit involves many sectors and various kinds of food; meanwhile, it characterized by betterconcealment, stronger professionalization and more obvious profit-making purpose. Crimesof endangering food safety seriously threats people’s life and health, brings about enormouseconomic losses, goes against economic development, and damages China’s image. This kindof crime is mainly driven by illegal profit, and is caused by management main body’s moraldeficiency, absence of supervision, imperfect legal system and the extremely lightadministrative penalty.At present, the criminal regulation for crimes of endangering food safety has been fairlycomprehensive in China, so there is no need to continue enlarging the crime circle anddeveloping new charges. What is needed is to explain criminal law by classification thinking.Classification thinking is good for the methodization of crimes of endangering food safetyand overcoming the disadvantage of concept thinking, making the criminal law apply to thevaried life. The standard to classify crimes of endangering food safety is various, of whichthere are no right nor wrong, but it is more appropriate to take criminal behavior pattern as theclassification criterion. Crimes of endangering food safety can be categorized into three types, which are respectively crimes of endangering food safety through production and salebehavior, through assisting production and sale behavior, and through lax regulation behavior.The subjective guilt of crimes of endangering food safety through production and salebehavior should be intent.at the aspect of punishment. And the the application’s scope ofqualification punishment should be expaned.The criminal fine will be the first choice in theapplication of pecuniary penalty. Crimes of endangering food safety through assistingproduction and sale behavior is actually a pattern of joint crime of the former one, andaccomplice theory is applicable for it to convict and punish. The relationship between crimeof abusing the office, crime due to dereliction of duty and crime of lax regulation of food isthat: the former two are general sin and the latter one is special sin. It is suggested that theSupreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate promulgate relevant judicialexplanation as soon as possible, making a definition of “with particularly seriousconsequence” and “food safety incidents”.