RT Article
T1 Criminal sanctions on identity theft in Shanghai: An empirical case law analysis
JF International journal of law, crime and justice
VO 71
A1 Zhang, Jian
A2 Li, Ke
A2 Feng, Yang
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1840147059
AB This article aims to examine the actual severity of criminal sanctions on identity theft imposed by Shanghai courts, which entails an analysis of the effects of eight factors on the probability of imprisonment, probation and the length of imprisonment/detention in 507 Shanghai courts' judgements. Since the Supreme People's Court promulgated the Judicial Interpretation on sanctioning identity theft crimes in 2017, the severity of criminal punishment substantially increased. Judges seemed to have considerable discretion to deviate from the sentencing criteria set by the Criminal Code and the 2017 Judicial Interpretation. Judges' discretion indicates a gap between formal criminal law and its enforcement. A more coordinated legal framework of personal information protection that contains criminal law, administrative law and civil law might be more effective in fighting identity theft. It could be meaningful to adjust the existing sentencing criteria and give judges full play to explore the sensitiveness of personal information.
K1 Criminal sanctions
K1 Identity Theft
K1 Imprisonment sentence
K1 Judicial interpretation
K1 Personal Information
K1 Probation sentence
DO 10.1016/j.ijlcj.2022.100562