Ideal and Reality: The Reform of Juvenile Sealed Criminal Records in China

Abstract

Two-way protection is a special concept of juvenile justice. The connotation of this concept is to protect minors while taking the protection of social and public interests into account. Under this concept, the sealed criminal records system should balance the protection of minors and social defense effectively. However, the current system of juvenile sealed criminal records in China has some problems, such as improper disclosure of criminal information, rigid scope of sealed, hindering the employment of juveniles etc., which deviates from the concept of two-way protection principle. From the perspective of the principle of two-way protection, this paper explores the state-should-be of the system and analyzes the problems in judicial practice, and then perfects the current system from the aspects of concept correction and system docking, in order to make the system protect the interests of juvenile offenders to the greatest extent and take the protection of social interests into account.