| The cult,as a long-standing social phenomenon in human development,has been hidden under various social systems like a parasitic bond.Since the founding of PRC,some cult organizations such as Falun Gong and Almighty God had sprung up and then gradually gone into hiding.Seemingly,the cults in China have perished,but in fact,they have still exited.Behind the back of humanistic society,the cults have still grown.Although they are the underground or semi-underground organizations,they have gradually developed their various modes of operation and constantly endangered the harmony and stability of our society.Therefore,the primary task for safeguarding the interests of the country and the people is to exercise strict control over cults.The calls from the academic circle in China for improving the legal system for curbing the cult crimes have been increasing.At the beginning of 2017,the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate promulgated new judicial explanations of cult crimes according to the change in criminal policy field.However,in the field of criminal legislation,the regulations on such crime are not satisfactory:they are extremely general and some measures are inadequate.Meanwhile,according to the Criminal Law of the PRC,generally,severe punishments are imposed on those committing a cult crime.In view of this,some proposals are put forward specifically.If one commits a minor crime which has no serious impact on social harmony,he/she can be punished based on other laws instead of the Criminal Law.In addition,for some relevant explanations of laws or justice,some necessary amendments shall be made.In the final judgment,the measurement of penalty shall be based on all factors,specifically,the features that the cult shows in the course of crime,such as its antisocial nature and mind control.That is to say,the current situation where the measurement of punishment is only based on the constitutive elements of a crime shall be changed.In this paper,based on the relevant theories of study on cult crimes in China,the connotation of cult crime determination and its legislative practice at the present stage are analyzed and the existing problems are identified from the relevant laws and regulations.Moreover,the necessary analysis of the reasons for the above problems is conducted.Finally,the proposals for improving the regulations of criminal law against cult crimes are put forward.Specifically,the main contents of this paper are as follows,including those covered in the abstract,introduction and main body parts:?1?The analysis of the concepts related to cult crimes is conducted.First of all,specific regulations on the concept of“heresy”are not clearly stipulated in China's criminal legislation;but the concept of“cult organization”is defined legally.In this paper,the analysis is conducted from these aspects:the connotations and features of cult organization and cult crime,current legislative situation of cult crimes regulated in the current criminal laws and tendency of cult crime development.The cult crime refers to the behavior of actor that shall be punished according to the criminal law because he/she severely endangers social harmony through his/her arrangement or using the illegal organizations with those features described above.Meanwhile,in order to solve the problem of vagueness in the identification of cult crime stated in Article 300 of the Criminal law and in the actual handling of cases,some new regulations are stipulated on the basis of judicial explanations previously promulgated by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.?2?Based on the preliminary understanding of basic elements of cult crimes,the constitutive elements of cult crime and its basic charge are put forward;specifically,these crimes include the crime of violating the social legal order,crime of encroaching upon personal and property rights of citizens,crime of organizing and using the superstitious sects and secret societies,cult organizations or superstitious behavior to deceive others,causing serious injury or death,crime of rape,crime of insults or defamation,crime of intentional homicide,crime of intentional assault,crime of fraud and so on.Zheng Mumin[1]of Xiangtan University pointed out in 2003 that,the phenomenon of excess criminalization had existed in the China's regulations on cult crimes,which was contrary to the modest and restraining nature of criminal laws in China.In fact,it is consistent with the data which are obtained and collected by the authors in actual work.?3?The existing problems in the regulations on cult crimes stipulated in the criminal law were pointed out.The defects in the identification of cult crimemainly are analyzed mainly from the legislative and substantive perspectives,and the reasons for the above problems are further analyzed.The problems are mainly manifested in these aspects:incompleteness of the regulations on cult crimes stipulated in the criminal law,inaccuracy in the definition of cult,slight generalization in defining the charge,relatively serious phenomenon of excess criminalization and problems in the judicial practice.At the same time,the reasons for cult crime are analyzed mainly from social and economic aspects.?4?The purpose of putting forward the above proposals for cult crimes in China is to provide necessary theoretical references for improvement of regulations on cult crimes through the conclusive study in this paper.Through improving the relevant laws and regulations,the concept of cult can be redefined,the identification of cult crime in the criminal law can be clearly determined,the investigation on cult crime can be enhanced and the crackdown on global cult crimes can be enhanced.The proposals for improving the regulation on cult crimes are put forward in this paper.The life of the constitution and law lies in practice.In the practice of cracking down on cult crimes,the important weapons are to improve social governance ability by means of law,grasp the initiative of resolving social governance and contradictions and make governance rules to be scientific and perfect.However,because of the particularity of legislative and judicial background,there is necessity of improving the laws and regulations on cult crimes in China according to the characteristics of cult crimes in China.For example,the definition of cult crime and the measurement of charge for cult crime can be adjusted appropriately to better adapt to the economic development in the new era and crack down on cult crimes. |
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