An empirical analysis of criminal sanctions against exam cheating in China

Abstract

In order to ensure the sustainability of the national examination system, which is the basis of social mobility, China has added new criminal sanctions for Exam Cheating in the criminal law amendment in 2015, and issued the latest judicial interpretation in 2019. However, through the analysis of the relevant judicial application data from 2015 to 2019 by SPSS, it is found that there is still a certain gap between the latest judicial interpretation and the actual problems. To a large extent, the judicial interpretation in 2019 solved the problems of the scope of the crimes of exam cheating and clarified its boundary with other related crimes. However, it does not contain detailed provisions on “serious circumstances”, which will certainly affect the original purpose of legal regulation laid down by the legislator to prevent illegal acts and formulate lawful behavior. Through the empirical research on such crimes, this article argues that the functions of criminal law in shaping the moral and behavior standard could give full play only by revising the penalty standards through later judicial interpretation. Such measures are extremely necessary and will achieve the goal that the legislator pursued when introducing liability for cheating.