HR In the News: Execution in China may have inspired copycat criminals.

Criminal psychologists are claiming that three separate attacks on school children in China are copycat crimes, emulating an attack that took place on March 23 where Zheng Minsheng stabbed eight children to death at a primary school in Fujan Province. The three ensuing attacks, all of which occurred in the last three days, are said to have been “inspired by the intense public reaction and broad media coverage of the March 23 murders.” The first of the reactionary attacks took place on Wednesday, the day of Zheng’s execution. While the Chinese media has claimed that two or three of the attackers suffered from mental illness, these claims seem to be exaggerated.

The story about these copycat crimes shows one important fact about the use of the death penalty in this instance: it not only failed at deterring crime, but it inspired more crime of the exact same type. If the death penalty does not prove to deter crime, then what is the point of enacting it? Also, this provides a demonstration of how quickly the death penalty is enacted in China. It took only one month for Zheng to be tried and executed. China has been known to be both harsh and mysterious when it comes to death sentencing, but the taking of someone’s life is not a practice that should be rushed.