Law should better address juvenile violence

Students walk home after school at a primary school in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province, Sept 12, 2012. [Photo/IC]

Another video of youth violence was posted recently on the Internet, and incomplete statistics show that more than 20 incidents of violence in schools were reported during the first half of 2015. Comments:

Although school violence will bring long-term mental hurt to the victims, in reality, most of those bullied, in fear of embarrassment or revenge from the abusers, choose to tolerate the bullying and remain silent. Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to ask the teenage victims to rationally and wisely fight against school violence. Substantial action must be taken, such as learning from the overseas practice of establishing a penalty system specially tailored for juveniles.

Worker's Daily, July 1

A noteworthy detail of the school violence is that most parties involved, including the abusers and victims, are described as minors or no-longer in-school students, or else youths already receiving counseling or other adult intervention. If such ambiguity remains, the so-called salvation and intervention will be a wasted effort. The more complicated the cause of school violence, the more patience is needed to find a genuinely effective solution to the problem.

Legal Daily, July 1

More often than not, society always considers what happens in schools as the affairs of children, and often simply criticizes the students involved. Because of this, over time, some of these juveniles will hold on to their violence, which can be attributed to both the glorifying of violence in films and TV dramas and the permissiveness of society. Laws and regulations should be strengthened to address juvenile violence. It is interesting to note that not long ago, the news that several Chinese teenage students studying in the United States and abusing a fellow classmate were to face legal punishment in the US went viral in China.

Tianjin Evening News, June 30