Special agency can help tackle campus violence

A gavel in a court. [Photo/IC]

An official from the Supreme People's Procuratorate said it was difficult to collect evidence in cases of campus violence involving minors. He proposes setting up a special agency to deal with the crimes of minors. An editorial on Beijing News comments:

According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the number of primary and secondary school pupils dealt with for campus violence was 2,337 between January and November this year. But it should be understood that more cases are left unreported and more perpetrators go unpunished.

It is common sense that campus violence must be curbed. However, we still lack effective measures to fight it and campus violence is still a problem.

The problem lies in the lack of coordination among various departments. The education departments, the judiciary, and the police do not work together, and in some cases they simply pass the buck. More important, the stipulations in the law about campus violence are rather technical and each department has its own explanation.

Thus a professional agency able to mobilize all the resources and coordinate among all the departments is needed. The agency should be able to coordinate among the police, the education bureau, and the prosecutors' office, so that they can work together for the prevention of campus violence.

A professional and coordinated approach is inevitable if campus violence is to be tackled effectively. We need to aim at "preventing", not only "curbing" campus violence; we do not want campus violence to happen in the first place. In order to realize that goal, education is of key importance.