Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Municipal High People’s Court, the Municipal People’s Procuratorate, the Municipal Judicial Bureau, and the Municipal Women’s Federation jointly released the 2019 “White Paper on the Judicial Protection of Women’s and Children’s Rights and Interests in Shanghai” (hereinafter referred to as “White Paper”).
The document disclosed that in 2019, Shanghai procuratorial organs handled a total of 220 246 persons arrested for sexual assault and minor crimes, and 211 211 persons were investigated and prosecuted. Among the sexual assault crimes tried in the Shanghai court system, the crimes mainly involved child molestation, rape and compulsory indecent assault. Among them, child molestation accounted for 58.8%, rape and forced indecent assault accounted for 31.1% and 8.1%, respectively. Acquaintances mostly committed crimes in sexual assault cases, with neighbors, netizens, other acquaintances and tutors accounting for 24.3%, 13.5%, 10.2 and 8.8%, respectively.
In May 2019, 16 relevant units such as the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Political Science and Law, the Municipal Procuratorate, and the Municipal Women ’s Federation signed the “Regarding the Establishment of a System for Restricting the Employment of Persons Involving Sexual Assaults and Criminal Offences” in response to the situation of sexual abuse of children with special responsibilities for children. “Opinions” stipulates that employers in Shanghai, such as education, medical treatment, training, and assistance, who are in close contact with minors in the industry, should examine whether there are criminal records of sexual assaults against the personnel to be hired, and those with relevant records shall not be hired. As of the end of 2019, the relevant departments in Shanghai screened nearly 270,000 employees who were in close contact with minors in the industry, and 26 people with a history of sexual assault and criminal records were not hired or removed.
In 2019, various judicial organs in Shanghai stepped up punishment for violations of the laws and crimes against the rights and interests of women and children. The Shanghai public security organ severely punishes infringements, candid photographs and other violations of privacy in Shanghai rail transit areas. The Shanghai judicial organ handled the country ’s first criminal case of “salty pig hands”. The court sentenced the defendant to six months ’imprisonment for compulsory indecent assault. In view of the gap in China’s criminal crackdown in this field, it was rated as the top ten national women and children’s rights protection cases in 2019. In 2019, the Shanghai court system imposed penalties on all kinds of crimes involving sexual assault, and 31.05% of the defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 to 15 years.
According to the “White Paper”, Shanghai has always maintained a high-pressure and severe crackdown on violations of the lawful rights and interests of women and children. People’s mediation organizations at all levels in the mediation of cases involving women and children will report to the police if they find violence. The community where the police station is located handles the domestic violence police at the frontline, and issues a “Domestic Violence Admonition” to stop domestic violence. The People’s Court made a ruling on the respondent’s personal safety protection order in accordance with the “Anti-Domestic Violence Law” and cooperated with the public security organ to implement supervision in the community. Procuratorial organs have grasped the “Prosecution Proposal No. 1” and do a good job of “the rule of law enters the campus.” A total of 513 prosecutors served as deputy principals and rule of law counselors in 731 elementary and secondary schools throughout the year.