On December 17, China Women’s News reported
on changes to prisoner probation rules in Beijing that mean women
who’ve committed crimes after experiencing domestic violence can be
released earlier.
Li Ling, deputy chief procurator of Haidian
District People’s Procuratorate, said that, though an April 2001
Marriage Law amendment banned domestic violence in China for the
first time, there are insufficient mechanisms in place to prevent
and respond to it, and it is still not recognized in court as a
mitigating factor for crimes by survivors of it.
In January, Beijing Municipal Higher People’s
Court, People’s Procuratorate, Public Security Bureau, Justice
Bureau and Prison Administration said they would relax parole
criteria for older people, youths and abused women.
On October 1, they issued details that said the
cases of people convicted of negligence (excluding hit-and-run
drivers), people who have acted in self defense, and women who have
committed crimes against men who had abused them would be
considered more leniently in parole rulings.
They can be released on probation on condition that
they have completed half of their sentence with good behavior or
two thirds of their sentence with leave to request parole.
Li said women who experience long-term domestic
violence sometimes become offenders themselves through feelings of
desperation and helplessness, and 10 percent of those in Beijing
prisons had committed murder.
Although this was still murder, Li said such
violence was only directed towards their abusers and did not pose a
threat to anyone else, so giving them early parole accords with the
spirit of the law – to punish and rehabilitate criminals and to
prevent crime.
Zhao Shuhua, director of Beijing Municipal Women’s
Federation’s Rights and Interests Department, said imprisonment of
such women deprived their children of maternal care, and that
releasing them early benefits their families.
However, she emphasized that all criminals should
receive penalties, no matter what the reason for their offense. The
current priority should be to establish interventions that enhance
public awareness of domestic violence and confer power to provide
help to its survivors on local governments, social organizations,
charities and communities.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, December 23,
2005)