Criminal Justice Guide (Issue No. 22)

Author: Zhang Zhongfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The carrier of criminal policy refers to the form in which criminal policy exists. Regarding the form of criminal policy, there is also severe disagreement in academia. The narrow concept of criminal policy often tends to understand the form of criminal policy as the strategies, policies, and principles for combating crime with criminal law; the narrow concept of criminal policy, on the other hand, holds that the form of criminal policy is the strategies, policies, principles, and measures for combating crime with criminal law and related systems. Scholars who hold the broad concept of criminal policy generally believe that criminal policy has a wider variety of forms of existence. For example, Mr. Marc Ancel that criminal policy is both "the science of observation" and "the methods, strategies, or art of combating crime." Some scholars in China argue that criminal policy is a systematic whole, encompassing the criteria, strategies, policies, plans, and specific actions of the state and society in combating crime. In my opinion, criminal policy should not be merely reduced to abstract "guidelines" or "policies" for guiding the application of criminal law. Criminal policy has a strong practical nature, and thus special attention should be paid to selecting, employing, and employing the most appropriate strategies, techniques, timing, methods, and means to achieve the best results and aesthetic requirements in acceptance. However, whether the emphasis on practicality in criminal policy should lead to the inclusion of specific actions in combating crime is a debatable conclusion. In my opinion, the focus of criminal policy lies in practice, but specific actions in combating crime, whether by the state, society, or individuals, are merely practical activities of criminal policy, the process of practicing and embodying criminal policy, not the form of criminal policy itself. If criminal policy is concretized as "specific actions in combating crime" and compared with the criteria, strategies, policies, and plans of the state and society in combating crime, it may blur the boundary between criminal policy and the practice of criminal policy, and may even distort the relatively general, abstract, flexible, intentional, and uncertain basic attributes of criminal policy. I advocate that the form of existence of criminal policy is not limited to abstract principles such as criminal law criteria and policies in combating crime, but it also does not directly manifest as individual or specific actions in combating crime. Criminal policy should be a multi-dimensional, hierarchical, and unified system of existence that consists of macro strategic, abstract policy (criteria), micro strategies, specific methods, as well as the art, strategy, and wisdom in combating crime.
The carrier of criminal policy, in addition to the form of existence of criminal policy, also involves the origin of criminal policy, i.e., where criminal policy exists and how criminal policy is discovered. This is the issue of the form of existence of criminal policy. Based on different concepts of criminal policy, there are also completely different understandings of the form of existence of criminal policy in academia. Traditional views, especially those scholars who hold the narrow concept of criminal policy, often tend to discover the guiding policies for the application of criminal law in the constitution, criminal law, as well as the programs, resolutions, or policy statements of the ruling party or leaders. However, scholars who hold the narrow concept of criminal policy believe that the form of existence of criminal policy...