IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlawss/v12y2023i3p53-d1166001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Milestones and Current Dilemmas: Evaluation of Sentencing Standardization for Illegal Possession of Drugs in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jia Wu

    (School of Law, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Yang Xia

    (School of Law, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Apei Song

    (School of Law, Society, and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Justice, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)

Abstract

It has been more than ten years since the nationwide sentencing standardization reform was implemented in China to solve the widespread problem of uneven sentencing in criminal justice. A statistical analysis of 1595 written judgments of illegal possession of drugs showed that the reform of sentencing for the standardization amount-based crimes has achieved remarkable results, and judges’ discretion has been highly normative and consistent. Under the same criminal circumstances, the degree of consistency between the amount involved in the crime and imprisonment has significantly increased, which is more in line with the standards of formal justice. However, the effect of the sentencing standardization reform declined as the amount involved in the crime increased. This exposes the shortcomings of the standardized sentencing model when considering multiple crimes; these include confusion between the amount and circumstances of a crime, the imbalance between crime and punishment, and the application of discretionary circumstances in sentencing depending on the amount involved in the crime. Therefore, it is necessary to attach more importance to the evaluation of the legitimacy of the sentencing range established by criminal law in subsequent sentencing reforms and to further refine and perfect the standardized sentencing mode, with a shift from formal justice to justice in form and substance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jia Wu & Yang Xia & Apei Song, 2023. "Milestones and Current Dilemmas: Evaluation of Sentencing Standardization for Illegal Possession of Drugs in China," Laws, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:53-:d:1166001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/53/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/53/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chao Wang & Nicholas Lassi & Xiaohan Zhang & Vinay Sharma, 2022. "The Evolving Regulatory Landscape for Fentanyl: China, India, and Global Drug Governance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-11, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Lassi, 2024. "Fentanyl's potential impact on public health in India and China: A comparative review," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(5), pages 2300-2317, July.
    2. Holmes, Bryan & Feldmeyer, Ben & Sun, Diana & Arrigo, Shayna, 2024. "Criminal court responses to the modern opioid and methamphetamine twindemic," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Chao Wang & Nicholas Lassi, 2024. "From poppy to pill: A comprehensive strategy to combat illicit synthetic drug production in Southeast Asia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 710-727, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:53-:d:1166001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.