On The Changes And Impacts Of Criminal Policies In Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region

Criminal policies are the basic principles and methods of responding to thecrimes and punishing the harmful behaviors against the society by the state, possess avery important position in the criminal law system of the state, and determine thebasic yardstick of the state in criminal legislation and criminal punishment. Since1980s, particularly in the past ten years, China has entered a special historical periodof rapid social transformation, and various new situations and new problems makemore and higher requirements for the research and development of criminal policies.For the criminal policies in this special time period, whether to study and adjust them,or to implement them after the policies are adjusted, we must have a scientific andrigorous attitude to look at them, and taking the history as the mirror and discardingthe dross and selecting the essential are the best embodiment of such scientific attitude.As the political, economical and cultural center of the Chinese Communist Party,Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region has not only accumulated a lot of valuableexperiences for all kinds of work after the founding of the People’s Republic of China,but also its criminal policies are exceptionally useful for current Chinese society in thetransformation period are very worthy of our in-depth research.With the criminal policies in Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region as the researchobject, and by referring to a lot of literatures and combining with the methods ofcomparison and data analysis, this article seeks to find the features and disadvantagesof the development and implementation of the criminal policies by the government of the Border Region, thus providing a reliable basis for the changes and development ofcriminal policies in current Chinese society. Firstly, the article introduces thehistorical and theoretical background of the changes of criminal policies inShaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, defines the inner link between the criminal policiesand social transformation and paves the road for the below discussion. Next, thearticle makes comparison with the criminal policies during the land revolution periodto introduce the transformation to the criminal polices of “moderation of punishment”with “education and influencing” as the basic idea in Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region,and summarizes its innovation briefly. In the second part, the article comprehensivelyexpounds the basic contents of the changes of the criminal policies inShaan-Gan-Ning Border Region and their implementation, introduces the big changesof the criminal polices in the Border Region with regard to the ideas and contents, andgives full affirmation to the criminal policies reflecting such ideas of progress as“everyone being equal before the law”,“differential treatment” and “moderationof punishment” etc. In the third part, the article analyzes the features of criminalpolicies in Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, and points out the criminal policies in theBorder Region have the rationality of the times, but they also have such problems asthat the criminal policies are too modest, and the political implication tends to beevident during the policy execution etc. The article especially mentions thetentative exploration by the Border Region in dual-polarization ofthe criminal policies, which provides useful practice experience for the launching andimplementation of the dual-polarization criminal policies in China. Finally, the articlediscusses the historical role and realistic reference problems of criminal policies inShaan-Gan-Ning Border Region. At first, the article points out that the criminalpolicies in Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region are of key significance for both the pastand now. Then considering the basic situation that China is now in a special historicalperiod of transformation, on one hand, the article notes that it is required to fullyabsorb the advantages and benefits in the criminal policies in Shaan-Gan-Ning BorderRegion, actively carry out the transformation of current criminal policies of China in ascientific and reasonable way, and insist on the basic criminal policies of “justice being tempered with mercy”; on the other hand, it is also required to take warningsfrom the disadvantages and lesson in the criminal policies in Shaan-Gan-Ning BorderRegion and avoid the reappearance of such problems as single polarization of criminalpolicies. The article eventually points out that only fully taking the history as themirror, adapting to the trend of the historical development and strictly implementingthe basic criminal policies of “justice being tempered with mercy and giving priorityto mercy” are main essence that criminal policies in Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Regionbring to us.