湖南12岁少年弑母获释引发争议

It began with a quarrel over cigarettes.

事件开始于抽烟引发的争吵。

Weighed down by loans and the burden of single parenting, a 34-year-old woman often took home leftover food and unopened packs of cigarettes from the banquets she occasionally attended in a nearby village in central China.

由于债务的重压和单身母亲的负担，一位34岁的女人常常把她偶尔到邻村参加宴席的剩菜和一盒盒没拆封的烟带回家。

But one night earlier this month, she discovered that her 12-year-old son had stolen and smoked four packs, and she exploded with rage and beat him, according to local media reports.

但本月早些时候的一个晚上，据当地媒体报道，她发现四包烟被12岁的儿子偷走并抽了，她勃然大怒，打了他。

The next morning, the woman identified only by her surname, Chen (her full name was not released by the authorities) was found dead in her bedroom, stabbed to death by her son, the police said. When the boy, who has been identified only by his surname, was asked by relatives if he regretted his actions, he said that he did, but that he didn’t think it was a big deal.

次日早晨，这名只公布了姓“陈”(当局未公布她的全名)的女人被发现死在她的卧室里，警方说，她是被儿子刺死的。当这名男孩——只公布了他的姓——被亲戚问起他是否对自己的行为感到后悔，他说他是后悔，但觉得没什么大不了。

“I didn’t kill anyone else. I killed my mom,” he was quoted as saying.

“我又没杀别人，我杀的是我妈。”报道中引述他的原话说。

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In the eyes of many Chinese, the boy was a heartless criminal who deserved to be punished. But in China, where the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 14, he could not be held legally responsible. The boy was released by the authorities in the town of Yuanjiang, in Hunan Province, with no conditions.

在很多中国人眼里，这个男孩是应该受到惩罚的残忍罪犯。但在中国，最低刑事责任年龄为14岁，他无法被追究刑事责任。男孩被湖南沅江市当局无条件释放。

Five days after he stabbed his mother more than 20 times, the sixth grader was back in school. Parents were irate.

在捅了自己的母亲20多刀五天之后，这名六年级学生回到了学校。家长们愤怒不已。

The grisly story, which has spread quickly across Chinese social media, has prompted a public debate in China about whether the country’s juvenile justice system, which has been praised in recent years for its focus on rehabilitation over punishment, is in fact too lenient.

这个可怕的故事在中国的社交媒体上迅速传开，引发了中国的公众对于该国未成年人司法体系的热议。近年来，这个因重改造轻惩罚受到称赞的体系事实上太过仁慈了。

It has also reignited debate about a question that countries around the world have long grappled with: At what age should a child be held responsible for his or her crimes?

此事还再度引发了一个困扰了世界各国多年的争论：在什么年龄可以追究儿童的刑事责任?

At the heart of the question is the issue of when a child can be deemed to have intent to commit a crime. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends the age of 12 as an “absolute minimum” of criminal responsibility.

问题的核心在于，什么时候儿童才能被视为有实施犯罪的意图。联合国儿童权利委员会(United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child)建议12岁为刑事责任的“绝对最低”年龄。

United Nations officials have cited research about child cognitive development and the dangers of exposing children to violence in prisons. But there is no global consensus. In the United States, the minimum age of criminal responsibility for federal crimes is 11. But in 33 states, children of any age can theoretically be convicted and sentenced at the state level. In India, the minimum age is 7, compared with 16 in Timor-Leste.

联合国的官员引用了关于儿童认知发展以及将儿童暴露于监狱暴力之下的危害的研究。但全球尚未达成共识。在美国，联邦犯罪的刑事责任最低年龄为11岁。但有33个州理论上任何年龄的儿童都可以在州一级被定罪并被判刑。在印度，最低年龄为7岁，而东帝汶则是16岁。

Some countries are considering changing the minimum age of culpability. In Australia, officials are looking into a proposal to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 16 from 10. In the Philippines, by contrast, President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to lower the minimum age from 15 as part of his brutal war on drugs.

一些国家正在考虑变更最低刑事责任年龄。在澳大利亚，官员们正在研究一项将刑事责任年龄从10岁提高至16岁的提案。与此相反，在菲律宾，总统罗德里戈·杜特地(Rodrigo Duterte)已发誓要将最低年龄从15岁降低，以此作为他残酷禁毒战争的一部分。

'He Looked at Me and Smiled'

“他就看着我笑了”

In China, the boy in Yuanjiang may have been underage. But to many who followed the case, there was no question that the boy had intended to commit a crime.

在中国，这个沅江男孩也许是未成年，但对许多关注此案的人来说，他毫无疑问是在蓄意犯罪。

Many pointed to reports about his behavior before and after the killing. When neighbors heard screams coming from the family’s apartment on the night of the stabbing, the boy told them through the door that everything was fine and that his mother was just upset because his 2-year-old brother had soiled the bed, according to Chinese news reports.

许多人提到了他在杀人前后的行为。据中国新闻报道，杀人当晚，邻居们听到他的家中传来尖叫声，男孩隔着门告诉他们，一切都很好，母亲只是因为他两岁的弟弟弄脏了床而心烦。

The morning after the killing, the boy sent his teacher a message from his mother’s phone to say that he had a cold and that he would not be at school, news reports said. When his grandfather stopped by to check in later that morning, the boy told him that his mother had gone out.

据新闻报道，在杀人案发生后的第二天早上，男孩用母亲的电话给老师发了一条短信，说他患了感冒，不去上学了。那天上午晚些时候，姥爷顺道来看望他，男孩告诉他母亲出门了。

The boy’s great-aunt told The Beijing News: “I asked him if he missed his mother. He shook his head and said no. I asked if he was afraid. He looked at me and smiled. I asked if he hated his mother. He nodded.”

死者的妯娌告诉《新京报》：“我问他想不想母亲。他摇头说不想。问他怕不怕。他就看着我笑了。恨不恨母亲，他点头了。”

His behavior led many people to say he should be held responsible for the crime.

他的行为使许多人认为他应该为这一罪行负责。

“You can’t use age as a standard for everything,” one user wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “Since we recognize that some children are talented and even exceed the I.Q. level of adults, we should also accept that some children have surpassed adults and are precocious.”

“不能用年龄作为一切事情对错的标准线，”一名用户在微博——中国版的Twitter——上写道。“既然我们认可有的孩子天资过人，甚至超过成年人的智商水平，那我们应该接受有的孩子心理早熟，也超过了成年人。”

But Zhang Hongwei, a professor at the Juvenile and Family Law Center at Jinan University, cautioned against moving too quickly to lower the minimum age of culpability, arguing that the problems of juvenile justice required a more “systematic” approach in China, which has a unified criminal justice system for both adults and juveniles.

但暨南大学少年及家事法研究中心教授张鸿巍警告说，不要过快降低应负罪责的最低年龄，他认为，在中国，青少年司法问题需要更多的“系统化”方法——在这里成人和青少年刑事司法系统是合一的。

He pointed to recent efforts to set up an independent juvenile system, similar to that in the United States. He also called for an overhaul of China’s work-study centers, which act as rehabilitation centers for juveniles who commit minor offenses.

他提到最近为建立独立的、类似于美国的青少年司法体系所做的努力。他还呼吁对中国的少管所进行全面改革，这是为犯有轻微罪行的青少年设立的教育中心。

“Even if we lower the minimum age, it can’t change everything fundamentally,” said Mr. Zhang.

“即使降低最低年龄，也不能从根本上改变一切，”他说。

Plight of Migrant Workers

民工的困境

The Yuanjiang killing highlighted a related issue that has long been a concern in China: the difficulties facing the more than 286 million migrant workers who leave home every year in search of work in the bigger cities.

中国每年有2.86亿多民工离开家乡到大城市找工作，沅江事件突显了他们面临的困难，这在中国是一个长期问题。

According to local news reports, the boy was, like the children of many migrant workers, “left behind” in his hometown at a young age and raised mostly by his grandparents. He had moved in with his mother for the first time earlier this year, relatives told reporters.

据当地新闻报道，这名男孩和许多民工的孩子一样，在很小的时候就“留守”家乡，主要由祖父母抚养。亲戚们告诉记者，今年早些时候，他第一次搬到母亲家。

It is an experience that scholars say can be deeply destabilizing for young children. Researchers say a high proportion of juvenile crimes in cities are committed by children of migrant workers, who often face widespread discrimination in terms of access to schools, health care and employment, and are pushed into petty crime.

学者们表示，这种经历可能会给幼儿带来严重的不安定感。研究人员表示，在城市中，青少年犯罪中有很大比例是由民工子女犯下的，他们往往在入学、医疗和就业方面受到普遍歧视，被迫轻微犯罪。

“It has become one of the most serious social problems right now,” Mr. Zhang said. “The family support social mechanism for children of migrant workers is very underdeveloped.”

“这已经成为目前最严重的社会问题之一，”张鸿巍说。“农民工子女的家庭支持社会机制非常不完善。”

The day after the boy’s release, his father, a migrant worker in Guangdong Province who goes back home twice a year, tried to send the boy back to school. But parents protested, citing concerns about their children’s safety.

男孩获释后的第二天，他的父亲，一位在广东工作、每年回家两次的民工，试图把男孩送回学校。但家长们表示抗议，理由是担心自己孩子的安全。

Shunned by locals, the boy and his family fled to a $11.50-per-night hotel in a nearby town. On Thursday, the boy’s grandfather told reporters that local officials had agreed to pay for the boy to be sent to an asylum in the provincial capital of Changsha.

当地居民对男孩一家避而远之，他们逃到附近城镇，住进一家每晚80元的旅馆。周四，男孩的祖父告诉记者，当地官员已经同意支付将男孩送往省会长沙一家收容所的费用。

The family could not be reached for more details. The boy’s father has already gone back to Guangdong.

记者无法联系到其家人以获得更多信息。男孩的父亲已经回了广东。