CRI听力:Efforts Urged to Deal with Adolescent Violence

In the latest case, a middle school student in eastern Zhejiang province tied up a Grade-2 pupil in a dark room, punching the kid and scalding him with a burning cigar butt.

He committed the violence in front of three of his schoolmates.

The four are under the police investigation now.

Concerns over adolescent violence have mounted in China in recent years.

Photos and video clips that show minors insulting their schoolmates with physical and verbal abuse can be easily found now in the country's cyberspace.

In some cases, the young victims were even forced to pose nude before cameras.

Professor Pi Yijun with China University of Political Science and Law says teenagers are naturally prone to committing violence.

"Generally speaking, teenagers can hardly think in a mature way and usually behave in a flippant and wayward manner. They have more activities than children and their physical conditions are nearly the same as adults', but meanwhile, they are weak in controlling themselves, which make it relatively easy for them to cross the line."

Pi points out that doting parents is another factor leading to the unruliness of teenagers.

He suggests greater importance should be attached to moral education.

"Many teenagers committed violence since they had realized that laws would not punish those aged under 14. So it's more important to inculcate the sense of social morality into their minds than simply tell them about laws. They should know there are barriers to freedom."

In the meantime, Xiong Bingqi from the 21st Century Education Research Institute urges schools to increase the awareness among students of respect for everyone.

"Many of our schools have seldom taught students to respect others and cherish the life, so in many cases of adolescent violence, the offenders showed severe cruelty. We must pay more attention to the education in this regard before it's too late."

Experts also blame the lack of laws pertinent to adolescent crime in the country.

Current Chinese laws stipulate that offenders aged under 18 should not be imprisoned, while teenagers under the age of 14 will not face criminal penalties.

To address this, Pi Yijun is calling for special legislation.

"Our effort in dealing with this problem is still far away from being enough. It's widely believed that laws originally formulated for adults can also apply to teenager offenders, but it's not feasible indeed. We have also enacted a special law aiming to prevent adolescent crime, but it looks more like an empty uniform."

So far, some foreign countries have established special law systems for teenagers. In the US, young offenders attend juvenile courts and educational institutions, while punishments for their parents and compensation for the victims of violent acts have also been mandated.

For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.