Malpractice, infringement cases focus, difficult problems of judicial application

Author: Miao Shuquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Negligent crime and the crime of public officials abusing their power to infringe upon citizens' personal rights and democratic rights are serious criminal offenses. They have a social harm far beyond people's imagination. The number of casualties caused by these crimes is often much higher than that caused by crimes like murder and injury. The economic losses they inflict on the state and people are often even greater than those caused by economic crimes. Statistics show that from 2000 to June 2005, procuratorial organs handled a total of 34,685 cases involving 38,554 people in various types of negligent crimes. These crimes resulted in direct economic losses of as high as 48.05 billion yuan for the state. At the same time, like corruption and bribery crimes, they also have a profoundly negative political impact on the Party and the state. What is even more noteworthy is that the social harm caused by negligent crimes is often manifested as a combination of various severe consequences in a single case. That is, a single case of negligent crime often involves both casualties and property losses, as well as damage to the image of the Party and government. For example, statistics show that the massive forest fire that occurred in the Daxing'anling Forest Region from May 6 to June 2, 1987, was the largest in terms of forest destruction, the highest in casualties, and the most devastating in terms of losses since the founding of the country. The direct losses were as follows:
- Affected forest and sparse forest area: 1.14 million hectares, of which 870,000 hectares were damaged.
- Burned timber in storage yards: 850,000 cubic meters.
- Various equipment: 2,488 units, including 617 large-scale equipment such as cars and tractors.
- Bridges and culverts: 67, with a total length of 1,340 meters.
- Dedicated railway lines: 9.2 kilometers.
- Communication lines: 483 kilometers.
- Power transmission lines: 284 kilometers.
- Grain: 3.25 million kilograms.
- Housing: 614,000 square meters, including 400,000 square meters of residential buildings.
- Affected households: 10,807, with a total population of 56,092.
- Deaths: 193.
- Injuries: 226.
- Military and civilian personnel participating in firefighting: over 58,800, including over 34,000 from the People's Liberation Army.
The fire severely damaged the local forest resources and deteriorated the ecological environment. According to local veteran forest workers, it takes 70 to 100 years for a tree to grow in this area. This shows that the adverse effects of the fire are extensive and far-reaching. The case also drew widespread attention from the international community and had a profoundly negative political impact on the Party and the state. Later investigations revealed that the fire was neither a natural disaster nor caused by destruction. All five fire sources were ignited by forest workers throwing cigarette butts carelessly, which then caught fire and ignited trees. This was closely related to the leadership of the local forestry department's negligence in fire prevention work, lack of supervision and inspection, and failure to summarize lessons from previous fires. As a result, when the fire broke out, relevant personnel did not promptly identify and address the issue, and when they did, the measures taken were inappropriate. In essence, this was a serious case of negligence.
This book analyzes and discusses key, difficult, and controversial issues that law enforcement personnel may encounter when handling all types of negligent and crimes, using typical cases as examples. It provides an in-depth discussion of the difficulties and controversies in the judicial practice of specific negligent crimes stipulated by the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.